| Theatre Cinema: Lights on the Dark |
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A programme of films about the Armenian Genocide 6, 13, 20, 27 May 2015 Cinema Room Admission free Wed 6 May, 19:00 Chienne d’historie (Barking Island)Animation, directed by Serge Avédikian, France, 2010; 15’ Constantinople 1910. The streets are overrun by stray dogs. The new government decides to deport the dogs to a desert island. Palme d’Or winner at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.  I Hate Dogs! The Last Survivor Documentary, directed by Peå Holmquist, Suzanne Khardalian, Sweden, 2005; 29’ In Swedish with English subtitles Garbis, an Armenian, is the one of the last remaining survivors of the 1915 the Armenian Genocide committed by the Young Turks of the Ottoman Empire. As a young boy he was forced on a death march through the desert of Deir ez-Zor, where he, and thousands of others, lost entire families in the massacres of the Armenians. Having survived the tragic events, Garbis has created a good life for himself in France despite the tragedies and trauma that have left him profoundly affected. Now, at the age of ninety-nine, he has found a new companion, Seta, who lives with him in an apartment just a few blocks from the Arc de Triomphe. With the help of a reading aid, Garbis follows daily news about Turkey’s attempts to join the European Union without acknowledging the very genocide that has left him in anguish for over 90 years.  Wed 13 May, 19:00 Grandma’s TattoosDocumentary, directed by Suzanne Khardalian, Sweden, 2011; 58’ In English During the First World War, millions of Armenians were forced out of their homes in the then Ottoman Empire, into the deserts of what is now Syria and Iraq. More than a million people died in the Armenian genocide. Filmmaker Suzanne Khardalian makes a journey into her own family history to investigate the terrible truth behind her late grandma’s odd tattoos. Her grandma was always a bit strange, never liking physical contact and covered with unusual marks. Everybody in the family seemed to know the story, but no one ever mentioned it. As grandma’s mystery is slowly unveiled, family taboos are broken down and Suzanne exposes the bigger story – the fate of the Armenian women driven out of Ottoman Turkey during the First World War. The painful journey behind Suzanne’s grandma’s tattoos unfolds through Armenia, Lebanon, Sweden and Syria, finally bringing out the truth.  Wed 20 May, 19:00 Voices from the Lake. The Secret GenocideDirected, text and cinematography by Jakob Michael Hagopian; sound by John Bilezikjian; sound edited by Ed Callahan; produced by Jakob Michael Hagopian and Glenn Farr; USA, 2000; 89 minutes In EnglishAfter twenty-five years in research and production, the first feature-length documentary film on the Armenian Genocide focuses on the day-to-day tragedy unfolding in Kharpert-Mezreh, one of 4000 towns and villages of the former Ottoman Empire in 1915, where monumental forces were unleashed by a policy of annihilation. The global humanitarian dimensions of the cataclysmic event are recorded by eyewitness accounts of American and European officials, missionaries and educators, and by Armenian survivors. These are revealed for the first time through censored reports, classified documents and hidden diaries. Amazingly, scratched-out journals have been decoded with the help of modern digital technology.
Wed 27 May, 19:00 The River Ran RedDocumentary, directed by Jakob Michael Hagopian, USA, 2009; 60’ In English The River Ran Red is the epic search for survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 along the Euphrates River. From his archives of 400 testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses, award-winning filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian weaves a compelling story of terrifying intensity, taking the viewer from the highland waters of the river to the burning deserts of Syria... and to the final resting place of those whose blood ran red in the waters of the Euphrates.  The Witnesses Trilogy (Voices from the Lake, 2000; Germany and the Secret Genocide, 2003; The River Ran Red, 2009) is a series of three documentary films written, directed and produced by Jacob Michael Hagopian and based on his filmed interviews of 400 survivors of and eyewitnesses to the Armenian Genocide of 1915. Hagopian chronicles the near extinction of the Armenian people against the sweeping canvas of the lack of human rights and the absence of democratic traditions and principles in the Ottoman Empire. The films document the Turkish leaders’ actions as an organised and systematic program of annihilation of the Armenian homeland in the Ottoman Empire, with transportation of Armenian deportees by rail to the far reaches of the Deir ez-Zor desert and massacres and ethnic cleansing operations along the Euphrates River. Presented under the auspices of the Armenian Film Foundation |
