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'SCREAMERS' A LOUD AND CARNAGE-FILLED HISTORY LESSON
By Evan Henerson, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Dec 8 2006
There's no masking filmmaker Carla Garapedian's outrage. It comes
barreling across the screen with every note thrashed out by political
rockers System of a Down, with every bit of politicspeak from past
U.S. presidents, and with all those corpses lying wide-eyed and
decaying along dusty roads and in makeshift graves.
The end credits of Garapedian's documentary "Screamers" - which
examines the world's history of genocides in the 20th and 21st
centuries - contains a huge body count of casualties: 1.5 million
Armenians dead, 2 million Cambodians, 400,000 and counting in Darfur.
And you get the sense that, had she the resources and screen time,
the director might have thrown every last corpse up on screen. The
effect, alas, quickly becomes numbing.
Cutting between the carnage and the commentators who acknowledge
that, yes, the United States has a rather shoddy history of genocide
intervention, Garapedian takes us on the road with System of a Down.
The Grammy-winning rock band whose members - like Garapedian - have
Armenian lineage, deliver music with a message.
They take action off stage as well, lobbying House Speaker Dennis
Hastert to bring an Armenian genocide recognition bill to the floor.
(During his one on-camera moment in the Capitol, the speaker meets
System lead singer Serj Tankian and politely blows him off).
Tankian's direct link to the carnage of 1915 is his 96-year-old
grandfather, Stepan Haytayan, whose memories of the death march from
Efkere are partially recounted in "Screamers." The late scenes between
the rocker activist and the wizened old man whose very being fuels
the band's quest, are quietly touching.
Less so, the rest of the film. Garapedian has lined up an assortment of
erudite and well-spoken contributors (most notably Harvard University
genocide expert Samantha Power) to drive home our nation's culpability
in the global carnage. By trying to bring the Holocaust, Pol Pot's
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur onto the same 91-minute canvas,
the director has perhaps cast her net too wide, leaving her outrage
over Armenia less sharply drawn.
That said, through "Screamers," Garapedian and producer Peter McAlevey
offer much to ponder, not to mention a group with more than fame on
its mind.
SCREAMERS Our rating: (R: disturbing images, language) Starring:
System of a Down.
Director: Carla Garapedian.
Running time: 1 hr. 31 min.
Playing: Mann Chinese 6, Glendale Marketplace 4, Mann Criterion
Santa Monica.
In a nutshell: The unending cycle of genocide told through System of
a Down's music, social commentators and footage of enough corpses to
fill up a dozen cemeteries.
By Evan Henerson, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News, CA
Dec 8 2006
There's no masking filmmaker Carla Garapedian's outrage. It comes
barreling across the screen with every note thrashed out by political
rockers System of a Down, with every bit of politicspeak from past
U.S. presidents, and with all those corpses lying wide-eyed and
decaying along dusty roads and in makeshift graves.
The end credits of Garapedian's documentary "Screamers" - which
examines the world's history of genocides in the 20th and 21st
centuries - contains a huge body count of casualties: 1.5 million
Armenians dead, 2 million Cambodians, 400,000 and counting in Darfur.
And you get the sense that, had she the resources and screen time,
the director might have thrown every last corpse up on screen. The
effect, alas, quickly becomes numbing.
Cutting between the carnage and the commentators who acknowledge
that, yes, the United States has a rather shoddy history of genocide
intervention, Garapedian takes us on the road with System of a Down.
The Grammy-winning rock band whose members - like Garapedian - have
Armenian lineage, deliver music with a message.
They take action off stage as well, lobbying House Speaker Dennis
Hastert to bring an Armenian genocide recognition bill to the floor.
(During his one on-camera moment in the Capitol, the speaker meets
System lead singer Serj Tankian and politely blows him off).
Tankian's direct link to the carnage of 1915 is his 96-year-old
grandfather, Stepan Haytayan, whose memories of the death march from
Efkere are partially recounted in "Screamers." The late scenes between
the rocker activist and the wizened old man whose very being fuels
the band's quest, are quietly touching.
Less so, the rest of the film. Garapedian has lined up an assortment of
erudite and well-spoken contributors (most notably Harvard University
genocide expert Samantha Power) to drive home our nation's culpability
in the global carnage. By trying to bring the Holocaust, Pol Pot's
Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur onto the same 91-minute canvas,
the director has perhaps cast her net too wide, leaving her outrage
over Armenia less sharply drawn.
That said, through "Screamers," Garapedian and producer Peter McAlevey
offer much to ponder, not to mention a group with more than fame on
its mind.
SCREAMERS Our rating: (R: disturbing images, language) Starring:
System of a Down.
Director: Carla Garapedian.
Running time: 1 hr. 31 min.
Playing: Mann Chinese 6, Glendale Marketplace 4, Mann Criterion
Santa Monica.
In a nutshell: The unending cycle of genocide told through System of
a Down's music, social commentators and footage of enough corpses to
fill up a dozen cemeteries.