In his hypnotic feature debut, filmmaker and artist Armand Yervant Tufenkian intertwines reverie and observation to explore how smoke, both as a form and a metaphor, is perceived, represented, and mediated. Through three different perspectives, that of a fire lookout in California, a contemporary post-Impressionist painter in London, and his own experience as a solitary observer, he examines how various media (writing, photography, painting, surveillance cameras) transform the perception and experience of seeing. As in painting with the sfumato technique, the multilayered, digressive narrative blurs the boundaries between form and background, subject and observer. The film was awarded the International Prize at Cinéma du Réel 2025.
Armand Yervant Tufenkian (b. 1988) is a filmmaker and lecturer. His eclectic background includes doctoral work at Duke University, filmmaking studies at CalArts, a period as a fire lookout in the Sierra Nevada, and life on a communal farm in France. His previous films include in lightning Agnes (2014) and Accession (2018). His debut feature, In the Manner of Smoke (2025), premiered at Cinéma du Réel, winning the International Award, and is complemented by a lecture-performance and manuscript titled Sfumato. He currently teaches cinema at Binghamton University.
