Meet the Film Crew Behind Hit the Road: Cambodia

We’ve introduced Ric Gazarian, the man behind Hit the Road: Cambodia and Large Minority, the event organizers, now it’s time to showcase to you the talent behind the lens.

Meet Gor and Mushegh, the co-founders of Manana Films and the men behind the Hit the Road: Cambodia cameras.

Tell us a little more about yourselves and your company Manana Films

My brother Mushegh and I started making films when we were teenagers. We studied at Manana Youth Center – an after-school media education center in Armenia (we named our studio Manana Films as a tribute to the place we found our passion). We made our first few short films there while learning. My first one-minute-long film won an award in a festival in Amsterdam when I was 14, and then a few other awards followed when we were still teenagers. When I was 18, I was the youngest nominee in the history of IDFA – the world’s biggest documentary festival. So at some point we realised we got too far already, and by the time we graduated from school we both knew we want to be filmmakers.

And so we founded our own production studio, which so far has produced several feature length documentaries, short films, music videos and brand films, and has over 30 international awards and nominations.

What sparked your interest to join Ric Gazarian on the Hit the Road tours in the first place?

In 2011 we had completed one of our biggest documentaries called ‘Neighbors’, which took us more than two years to make. During the production of that film both Mushegh and I were thinking of making an adventure documentary next. 

When we met Ric in Armenia that year, he had just completed a rally from Budapest to Yerevan and was very impressed by the adventure. When we were discussing it, we realised we have found a great topic for an adventure documentary; following one of the teams throughout the rally would be a great spectacle by itself. Ric told me about all the other rallies that take place in the world every year, and suggested the rickshaw rally in India as a great platform to make a film. He was also excited with the idea and we decided to work on this project together. That’s how it all started.

What has been the most memorable point of your filming journey with Hit the Road so far? 

In Cambodia we were especially impressed by the beauty of the country and the temples. Although I travel quite often, I don’t usually go to castles or temples. In Cambodia it was the opposite; most of the temples seemed to be merged with the nature, and you could spend hours just enjoying the view. They also look fascinating on film, as if they were built as a movie set.

 What has been the biggest challenge taking part in Hit the Road Cambodia?

Filming Hit The Road: Cambodia was much more challenging than India, and the rally seemed more intense and difficult, probably because it was more diverse. We were sleeping outdoors some of the nights, and we had a van full of equipment which needed to be charged, cleaned and set up every day. As you can imagine, doing it in a tent in the middle of the jungle is quite challenging.

But the biggest challenge was the pressure; when we were making Hit The Road: India, it was an experiment for all of us, but when you are producing a sequel, it has to be better than the first one, because that is what everyone will expect. You can’t just roll out something similar to the first episode and get away with it, that would be cheating. We both felt that responsibility, and it wasn’t very easy to handle.

Are you planning any new and exciting projects for Manana Films in the future?

The biggest project of 2016 is definitely Hit The Road: Cambodia, we’re all looking forward to its release.

Apart from smaller projects like music videos and brand films, our next big project is Ultrasounds – it’s a feature-length documentary about three independent musicians from UK, Canada and France, here is the teaser: https://vimeo.com/147294694. The film is planned to be released in late 2017. Both Mushegh and me are big music fans, and this is a project we’ve been nurturing for a long time now.

What are the challenges of producing/distributing as a small independent studio?

Running an independent company in any creative industry is probably one of the riskiest initiatives one can take. You spend at least a year or two developing a project, raising funds for it, finding the right people to work with, and then you hope the film will be successful in the market. 

On the other hand, we are living in the era of small independent studios; 10 years ago we could not even dream of making a film like this and distributing it ourselves.