AFMI fiscally sponsored project:
The Dragon Under Our Feet
Help Tara Baghdassarian make her first feature length documentary, The Dragon Under Our Feet.
AFMI fiscally sponsored project:
The Dragon Under Our Feet
Help Tara Baghdassarian make her first feature length documentary, The Dragon Under Our Feet.
Synopsis
The feature length documentary, The Dragon Under Our Feet, follows Tara Baghdassarian’s journey as she learns about Armenian carpets in both the San Francisco Bay Area and Armenia. Her hands create a contemporary stained glass piece in homage to Armenian carpets, illuminating a forgotten history that elicits more questions than answers. As the symbols take shape, the stories of her subjects begin to unfold.
Through her art practice, Tara Baghdassarian dives into the meaning of traditional Armenian carpets, unveiling the symbols and history woven into rugs, with emphasis on the dragon (vishap) motif. In scenes with SF Armenian Rug Society founders and researchers, and her father, Garbis Baghdassarian, an avid carpet enthusiast and collector, she uncovers the history and intricate process of decoding ancient symbols. Tara speaks with other young American-Armenian artists who are incorporating the symbols and lessons of Armenian carpets into their work. As she speaks with more diasporans, she sees a fragmented community seeking a means of connection to one another.
Across the ocean, Tara will connect with intergenerational families of weavers, shepherds, and villagers in Armenia who harvest plants for dyes, along with a collective of refugee women at the Goris Women’s Resource Center supporting their families through weaving. She will speak with historians and cultural experts who have devoted their lives to studying these carpets and preserving their legacies.
Themes of cultural erasure, diaspora, and war will entwine as she navigates through a country facing ongoing violence while asking the question — what stories have these carpets survived to tell? And what makes them Armenian?
In the full-length feature, Tara Baghdassarian will delve deeper into the urgency of preserving Armenian carpets, honor ancient artistic and craft practices, and uncover silenced narratives. Her mission is to bring the audience into this richly textured world through cinematic storytelling.
Director’s Statement
Thanks to my parents’ passion for collecting, I’ve been surrounded by Armenian rugs since birth. Growing up, they took my brother and me to carpet events and lectures across California. As active members of the Armenian Rugs Society’s SF chapter, they organized exhibitions and worked to preserve these cultural pieces.
It wasn’t until after I lived in Armenia, that I truly began to value the historical and cultural relevance of what they were doing. In 2017, I moved to my homeland for 5 years. In the fall of 2020, my rose-tinted glasses shattered when Azerbaijan launched a full-scale war against the independent Armenian enclave of Artsakh , or Nagorno-Karabakh. For months, I mobilized with the rest of the country, collecting food and medicine, filming aid distributions near frontlines, and gathering stories from refugees. In 2023, we lost what little was left of Artsakh and Armenians experienced mass displacement once again.
Given my upbringing, I feel compelled to preserve a threatened culture and bridge my hometown and my homeland. As the daughter of carpet collectors, I feel a personal responsibility to understand and appreciate the value of the collection I may one day inherit.
Director’s Statement
Thanks to my parents’ passion for collecting, I’ve been surrounded by Armenian rugs since birth. Growing up, they took my brother and me to carpet events and lectures across California. As active members of the Armenian Rugs Society’s SF chapter, they organized exhibitions and worked to preserve these cultural pieces.
It wasn’t until after I lived in Armenia, that I truly began to value the historical and cultural relevance of what they were doing. In 2017, I moved to my homeland for 5 years. In the fall of 2020, my rose-tinted glasses shattered when Azerbaijan launched a full-scale war against the independent Armenian enclave of Artsakh , or Nagorno-Karabakh. For months, I mobilized with the rest of the country, collecting food and medicine, filming aid distributions near frontlines, and gathering stories from refugees. In 2023, we lost what little was left of Artsakh and Armenians experienced mass displacement once again.
Given my upbringing, I feel compelled to preserve a threatened culture and bridge my hometown and my homeland. As the daughter of carpet collectors, I feel a personal responsibility to understand and appreciate the value of the collection I may one day inherit.
Cast & Crew
Tara Baghdassarian (director/producer)
Tara Baghdassarian is a Bay Area-based filmmaker, educator, and artist engaged in diverse mediums including music, stained glass, and shadow puppetry. A UC Berkeley Art Practice graduate, she spent over five years in her homeland, Armenia. Her current focus is on cultural preservation and education through collaborative storytelling. Tara is directing her first feature documentary, The Dragon Under Our Feet, which explores the stories embedded in Armenian carpets. She is a 2025 SFFILM FilmHouse Resident and co-founder of Mother Armenia, a SWANA collective that has raised over $17K for humanitarian causes, actively resisting disinformation and cultural erasure.
Tara is AFMI’s Education Coordinator.
Elize Manoukian (US Producer)
Elize Manoukian is a Bay Area-based American-Armenian freelance documentarian, journalist, and audio producer. She started working in audio as a producer for the 2023 California Journalism Award winning podcast “Border City,” co-produced by the San Diego Union Tribune and LA Times Studios, and as a radio producer for “On Shifting Ground with Ray Suarez,” a weekly radio show that formerly aired on KQED in San Francisco. She’s a regular contributor to KQED-SF as a radio producer, editor and reporter, an Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) New Voices Fellow for 2024, and along with Tara Baghdassarian, is a co-founder of Mother Armenia, an arts collective bridging the Bay Area with Armenia.
Sona Margaryan (Armenia Producer)
Sona Margaryan holds a degree in English Literature and has been actively engaged in filmmaking since 2012. Sona’s notable work includes her roles as associate producer for the acclaimed documentary animation Aurora’s Sunrise. This groundbreaking project received the Best Animated Film award at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards and was showcased at prestigious festivals such as IDFA, and Annecy IFF. She also worked on Mel , a powerful documentary about a transgender weightlifter, which was selected for the Thessaloniki IFF. Her feature-length documentary Fight has premiered at Cottbus IFF. Sona has presented her projects at numerous prestigious industry platforms.