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AWARD-WINNING FILMMAKER J. MICHAEL HAGOPIAN DIES AT 97
Asbarez
Monday, December 13th, 2010
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.-Armenian-American documentary filmmaker J.
Michael Hagopian, whose 70 educational and documentary films have
won more than 160 national and international awards, including two
Emmy nominations, died Dec. 10 in his Thousand Oaks, Calif., home. He
was 97.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. in
Samuelson Chapel on the campus of California Lutheran University,
60 W. Olsen Rd., Thousand Oaks.
Hagopian was a Genocide survivor who dedicated his life to the visual
documentation of the Turkish extermination of 1.5 million Armenians
in 1915. Over a 40-year period, he filmed nearly 400 interviews of
survivors of and witnesses to the Armenian Genocide, traveling around
the world to record their accounts in 10 languages. He established
the Armenian Film Foundation in 1979 as a non-profit, educational,
and cultural organization dedicated to the documentation in motion
pictures of Armenian heritage and life.
During the past several years, his mission had been to preserve the
film footage of those eyewitness interviews. On April 13, 2010, he
and his wife, Antoinette Hagopian, and the Armenian Film Foundation
signed an historic agreement with The USC Shoah Foundation Institute
for the preservation and dissemination of the Genocide testimonies
on the internet.
On Dec. 9, Hagopian was to meet Steven Spielberg, Shoah's founder,
at the foundation's Ambassadors for Humanity banquet but was unable to
attend because of a cold. Spielberg personally expressed his support
for the Armenians to two of Hagopian's colleagues on the AFF board who
attended the event, and Hagopian's work was acknowledged at the gala.
He passed away before he would have received a report of the evening,
but his legacy will no doubt long endure.
Born in Kharpert in Historic Armenia in 1913, Hagopian survived the
Genocide because his mother hid him in a well behind the family home.
His father was spared because he was an important medical doctor,
and the family left Turkey for Boston, Mass., in 1922, eventually
settling in Fresno, Calif., in 1927.
Hagopian attended Fresno State University, transferring to UC Berkeley,
where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political
science. He went on to earn another masters and a Ph.D. in Government
and International Relations from Harvard University. After serving
in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he taught at several
universities, including Banares Hindu University, India; American
University of Beirut, Lebanon; UCLA, and Oregon State University. While
teaching, he discovered a lack of good films to show his classes and
concluded that he could produce better documentaries.
After completing two years of graduate work in cinema at the University
of Southern California, Hagopian embarked on a new career as writer,
filmmaker and producer. In 1952 he founded Atlantis Productions, Inc.,
and as its president created award-winning films for instructional
and informational use in the classroom and on television. His earlier
films were about the peoples and cultures of India, Nigeria, the
Middle East as well as Native Americans and include the well-respected
Jerusalem - Center of Many Worlds and Asian Earth, which won several
film festival awards.
During his early filmmaking expeditions, Hagopian trekked 1,500 miles
to the source of the Ganges River, becoming the first man to film in
color the entire length of the river to the holy source. For this and
other remarkable adventures, he was invited to join the prestigious
Explorer's Club, New York, and Adventurer's Club, Los Angeles.
In 1961, he married Antoinette Hobden, and they settled in Thousand
Oaks in 1963. A major force in the formative years of Thousand Oaks,
Hagopian was active in its incorporation as a city and served on many
civic committees. In 1990 he laid the groundwork for the establishment
of a sister-city relationship between Thousand Oaks and Spitak,
a city in Armenia that he visited and filmed after the devastating
earthquake that hit the country on Dec. 7, 1988.
In addition to his local involvement, one of Hagopian's main interests
was to help create permanent Armenian studies programs in major
universities in America. As the initial West Coast member of the
National Association of Armenian Studies and Research, he worked to
endow the first two chairs in the United States, at Harvard in 1959
and at UCLA in 1965.
Armenian community leaders approached Hagopian about making a film
to mark the 50th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1965 he
produced the film Where Are My People, which was aired on KCOP TV in
Los Angeles. It was then that he realized that the witnesses to the
Armenian Genocide were fast dying, and he began filming survivors. He
made 17 documentaries about Armenian heritage, culture and history. In
1976, he received two Emmy nominations for the writing and production
of The Forgotten Genocide, which aired on KCET.
The last film Hagopian wrote, directed and produced was The River
Ran Red, a 58-minute documentary that opened the Eighth Annual
Arpa International Film Festival on Oct. 24, 2008, at the Egyptian
Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The River Ran Red, the third film in a
trilogy about the Genocide, was voted Best International Historical
Documentary by the New York International Film & Video Festival in
2009 and won many other awards.
Several of Hagopian's films were produced under grants from the U.S.
Office of Education and the Ethnic Heritage Program, the MacArthur
Foundation, California Endowment for the Humanities, Milken Foundation
and California State Department of Education.
Hagopian received numerous honors, including Jewish World Watch's
"I Witness" Award for dedicating his professional life to chronicling
the Armenian Genocide, the Arpa Lifetime Achievement Award, and the
Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award. The Armenian National Committee has
honored him as Man of the Year twice, once in 1984 and again in 2000.
"Through his life and career, Dr. J Michael Hagopian is proof that a
single person can change humankind's understanding of itself," said
Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian. "He is proof that we
can rise above intolerance and ensure future generations are armed
with the information needed to combat bigotry in all forms."
Hagopian is survived by his wife, Antoinette; children James Michael,
Maui, Hawaii; Joanne, Berkeley, Calif.; David, Thousand Oaks; and
William, Honolulu, Hawaii; and five grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Armenian Film
Foundation or the Conejo Valley Historical Society. Donations may
be sent c/o Armenian Film Foundation, 2219 Thousand Oaks Blvd.,
Suite 292, Thousand Oaks, California 91362, or made online at
www.armenianfilm.org.
From: A. Papazian
Asbarez
Monday, December 13th, 2010
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif.-Armenian-American documentary filmmaker J.
Michael Hagopian, whose 70 educational and documentary films have
won more than 160 national and international awards, including two
Emmy nominations, died Dec. 10 in his Thousand Oaks, Calif., home. He
was 97.
Funeral services will be held Wednesday, Dec. 15, at 2 p.m. in
Samuelson Chapel on the campus of California Lutheran University,
60 W. Olsen Rd., Thousand Oaks.
Hagopian was a Genocide survivor who dedicated his life to the visual
documentation of the Turkish extermination of 1.5 million Armenians
in 1915. Over a 40-year period, he filmed nearly 400 interviews of
survivors of and witnesses to the Armenian Genocide, traveling around
the world to record their accounts in 10 languages. He established
the Armenian Film Foundation in 1979 as a non-profit, educational,
and cultural organization dedicated to the documentation in motion
pictures of Armenian heritage and life.
During the past several years, his mission had been to preserve the
film footage of those eyewitness interviews. On April 13, 2010, he
and his wife, Antoinette Hagopian, and the Armenian Film Foundation
signed an historic agreement with The USC Shoah Foundation Institute
for the preservation and dissemination of the Genocide testimonies
on the internet.
On Dec. 9, Hagopian was to meet Steven Spielberg, Shoah's founder,
at the foundation's Ambassadors for Humanity banquet but was unable to
attend because of a cold. Spielberg personally expressed his support
for the Armenians to two of Hagopian's colleagues on the AFF board who
attended the event, and Hagopian's work was acknowledged at the gala.
He passed away before he would have received a report of the evening,
but his legacy will no doubt long endure.
Born in Kharpert in Historic Armenia in 1913, Hagopian survived the
Genocide because his mother hid him in a well behind the family home.
His father was spared because he was an important medical doctor,
and the family left Turkey for Boston, Mass., in 1922, eventually
settling in Fresno, Calif., in 1927.
Hagopian attended Fresno State University, transferring to UC Berkeley,
where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political
science. He went on to earn another masters and a Ph.D. in Government
and International Relations from Harvard University. After serving
in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, he taught at several
universities, including Banares Hindu University, India; American
University of Beirut, Lebanon; UCLA, and Oregon State University. While
teaching, he discovered a lack of good films to show his classes and
concluded that he could produce better documentaries.
After completing two years of graduate work in cinema at the University
of Southern California, Hagopian embarked on a new career as writer,
filmmaker and producer. In 1952 he founded Atlantis Productions, Inc.,
and as its president created award-winning films for instructional
and informational use in the classroom and on television. His earlier
films were about the peoples and cultures of India, Nigeria, the
Middle East as well as Native Americans and include the well-respected
Jerusalem - Center of Many Worlds and Asian Earth, which won several
film festival awards.
During his early filmmaking expeditions, Hagopian trekked 1,500 miles
to the source of the Ganges River, becoming the first man to film in
color the entire length of the river to the holy source. For this and
other remarkable adventures, he was invited to join the prestigious
Explorer's Club, New York, and Adventurer's Club, Los Angeles.
In 1961, he married Antoinette Hobden, and they settled in Thousand
Oaks in 1963. A major force in the formative years of Thousand Oaks,
Hagopian was active in its incorporation as a city and served on many
civic committees. In 1990 he laid the groundwork for the establishment
of a sister-city relationship between Thousand Oaks and Spitak,
a city in Armenia that he visited and filmed after the devastating
earthquake that hit the country on Dec. 7, 1988.
In addition to his local involvement, one of Hagopian's main interests
was to help create permanent Armenian studies programs in major
universities in America. As the initial West Coast member of the
National Association of Armenian Studies and Research, he worked to
endow the first two chairs in the United States, at Harvard in 1959
and at UCLA in 1965.
Armenian community leaders approached Hagopian about making a film
to mark the 50th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. In 1965 he
produced the film Where Are My People, which was aired on KCOP TV in
Los Angeles. It was then that he realized that the witnesses to the
Armenian Genocide were fast dying, and he began filming survivors. He
made 17 documentaries about Armenian heritage, culture and history. In
1976, he received two Emmy nominations for the writing and production
of The Forgotten Genocide, which aired on KCET.
The last film Hagopian wrote, directed and produced was The River
Ran Red, a 58-minute documentary that opened the Eighth Annual
Arpa International Film Festival on Oct. 24, 2008, at the Egyptian
Theatre in Hollywood, Calif. The River Ran Red, the third film in a
trilogy about the Genocide, was voted Best International Historical
Documentary by the New York International Film & Video Festival in
2009 and won many other awards.
Several of Hagopian's films were produced under grants from the U.S.
Office of Education and the Ethnic Heritage Program, the MacArthur
Foundation, California Endowment for the Humanities, Milken Foundation
and California State Department of Education.
Hagopian received numerous honors, including Jewish World Watch's
"I Witness" Award for dedicating his professional life to chronicling
the Armenian Genocide, the Arpa Lifetime Achievement Award, and the
Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award. The Armenian National Committee has
honored him as Man of the Year twice, once in 1984 and again in 2000.
"Through his life and career, Dr. J Michael Hagopian is proof that a
single person can change humankind's understanding of itself," said
Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Krekorian. "He is proof that we
can rise above intolerance and ensure future generations are armed
with the information needed to combat bigotry in all forms."
Hagopian is survived by his wife, Antoinette; children James Michael,
Maui, Hawaii; Joanne, Berkeley, Calif.; David, Thousand Oaks; and
William, Honolulu, Hawaii; and five grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers donations may be made to the Armenian Film
Foundation or the Conejo Valley Historical Society. Donations may
be sent c/o Armenian Film Foundation, 2219 Thousand Oaks Blvd.,
Suite 292, Thousand Oaks, California 91362, or made online at
www.armenianfilm.org.
From: A. Papazian