Yervant Gianikian studied architecture in Venice with the intention of working in the arts and modes of seeing. Working with Angela Ricci Lucchi, he wrote his architecture thesis on the silent cinema of the 20s and the Russian films of Ivan Mozzhukin. Later, he found 9.5mm prints of these films which he used for Catalogue 9.5-Karagöez, his first archive compilation film, made with Ricci Lucchi. His discovery of the American avant-garde cinema and the work of Stan Brackage led him to understand that one could make films alone, without attending a school and without intermediaries.