(Armenia) Vardan is the founder and president of Bars Media, with over 20 years of experience as a director, producer and cameraman for CBS news, ARD, the BBC, Arte, and numerous other media outlets. Vardan started as a front line journalist and cameraman, and covered hotspots throughout the Soviet Union, as well as the Karabagh war. In 1993 he founded Bars Media. He is a member of the International Documentary Association and the European Documentary Network.


Vardan is a certified sports plane pilot and first class parachutist, experienced in aerial film shooting. He is fluent in Russian, Armenian and English.

(Armenia) Inna graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts with an M.A. degree in Fine Arts Criticism. From 2002 until the present, she has been working as a producer and director at Bars Media.
Inna has directed films for ITVS (USA), NHK (Japan), YLE (Finland), SVT (Sweden), TVP Kultura (Poland), and ETV (Estonia, and directed and produced PSAs for various international organizations and local NGOs (UN, UNICEF, European Union, USAID, etc.) along with documentaries such “Sold Out Childhood” about child trafficking, and “Childhood Dreams”, which is a two-part documentary about orphaned children and children with disabilities. She worked as an assistant director on Vardan Hovhannisyan’s film A Story of People in War and Peace, and is currently working as the director and scriptwriter of the film The Last Tightrope Dancer in Armenia.
Inna is also currently working towards her Ph. D. in History and Theory of Art on Sergey Parajanov’s Fine Art.

(Greece/Iceland) Magnus Briem is half-Greek, half-Icelandic, and has lived all over the world. He studied political science at Tufts University, Sciences Po and at the University of Chicago. Before coming to Armenia, he worked for Northwestern University. Magnus is now an associate producer and researcher at Bars Media.

He is currently developing a project on Zoroastrianism in India, as well as another project in Italy

(Armenia) Vahe has received an MA degree in directing from the Yerevan State Institute of Theatre and Cinema. He also spent three years, pursuing liberal arts and media/film studies at The Blake School and at Minneapolis College in the United States. Vahe has worked for the Armenia TV Company as the Director of the Satellite Broadcast Department. In Bars Media, Vahe has worked as a producer on various projects and produced PSAs and corporate videos for UNFPA, the European Union, and he recently finished the production of two films for the Zvartnots International Airport and Habitat for Humanity - Armenia. Vahe is now working as the associate producer for the film Through the Eyes of a Donkey / Life in Lamu: A Donkeymentary.

(Armenia) Arman graduated from Yerevan Pedagogical University’s Directing Department. He has directed a number of award-winning documentaries including, “Under the Open Sky” and “Goodbye Felini.” Before collaborating with Bars Media, Arman was working for Russian Public Television, TV-Culture, as the director of a documentary series.

(Armenia) Tigran Baghinyan graduated from the Polytechnic Institute of Yerevan in 1994 with a degree in radio-engineering. In 1999, Tigran became an editor and worked for local television studios. Tigran joined the staff of Bars Media in 2002, where he became the Senior Editor. Since then, he has used his skills for various commercials and documentary projects. He has also worked on international projects in Germany.

(Armenia) Harut is a graduate of the Institute of Higher Technology of Yerevan. For seven years, he worked for “ArmElectroMach” as a computer technician.
In 2006 Harut joined Bars Media as a PHP/MYSQL programmer and assistant editor on Final Cut Pro.

(Armenia) Without a doubt, one of the best cameramen in the former Soviet Armenia, Vahagn is a VGIK (Moscow) graduate and award-winning director of photography for numerous Armenian and foreign films. His prize-winning films at international festivals and forums include Where the Sky Lies on the Earth (1988), A Voice from Without (1992), The End (1993), and A Story of People in War and Peace (2007). He has worked as Director of Photography along side some of the most prominent filmmakers in the region, including A. Peleshian, B. Hairapetian, E. Baghdasarian and Russian director A Eshpai, as well as being involved on countless music video clips and advertisements. His repertoire of films include, twelve full-length 35mm films, eighteen 35mm short films, seven full-length video Betacam SP films, nineteen short films using video Betacam SP.

(Armenia) Nelly is a certified Russian teacher who graduated from the Bryusov Pedagogical Institute with a degree in philology. She has worked as a teacher of Russian language and literature in various schools since 1983. In 2002, she joined the Bars Media team as the chef, turning her love for cooking into a second specialty. Nelly became Bars Media’s office manager in 2007, and now keeps everything in the office running like clockwork.

(United States) Karen graduated from Northwestern University in Chicago in 2007 with a B.A. in sociology and international studies, and after spending a year teaching English in Siberia, is now in Yerevan on a Fulbright Grant doing research on the social consequences of international labor migration for sending societies. When not traveling to distant villages for interviews, she works at Bars Media as a researcher/writer. She joined the Bars Media team in September 2008, and will be there at least until July 2009. She is currently working on Armenia Wants a Piece of the North and South Poles!!! and Aerial Archaeology in Afghanistan.

(Armenia) Thanks to Etery's culinary skills, the Bars Media staff not only savors tasty food, but also eats a healthy diet to insure maximum happiness and productivity. Etery is loved by all and functions as Bars Media's secret weapon – she is our most important employee.

(Armenia) Mher is in charge of security at Bars Media. He served in the army during six years of war and was wounded twice. He is now a Captain in the reserves.

(Germany) Katia is an international award-winning director based in Germany who will be collaborating with Bars Media on the project Welcome to Tokelau!

(Armenia) Ara is a talented graphic designer with his own business who frequently collaborates with Bars Media.

(United States) Lauren moved to Yerevan and joined Bars Media in 2001 as project director and producer. Her responsibilities include the management of the studio's daily activities, which include film production, grant and proposal writing and PR. When time permits, Lauren can also be found writing scripts and directing films. Lauren has produced films for the UN, Armenian Habitat, Orran and the British Council. Previously, she worked for New York Times television. Lauren graduated from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. She is currently studying at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs for a Master's Degree in International Affairs, with a concentration in economic development and media.