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River of Trouble?
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
Some might remember the problem-plagued tunnel that was built in the
1980s to channel the waters of the Arpa River to Lake Sevan to halt
the precipitous decline of its water levels. I hope that its namesake
organization, Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA), will
not be similarly impacted after a troublesome episode at this year's
annual Arpa International Film Festival.
I became aware of the issue by being included in a long string of
e-mails among the festival's organizers and protesters. The point of
contention was a film entered by an American who fought in Libya with
the rebels and now is supporting the rebels in Syria. In the interest
of full disclosure, please know that I have not seen the film. I will
not name it or its maker since I have no desire to promote that cause,
and because the point of my writing this piece is to suggest better
ways to handle similar situations in the future.
The film is billed as a documentary, but by all accounts is more of an
advocacy piece that, according to one of the e-mails, will be used to
help convince members of the U.S. Congress to support U.S. military
involvement in Syria. The problem lies therein. Since the rebels pose
a threat to the Armenian community in Syria, promoting something that
supports them in an Armenian forum is at best problematic.
Those protesting inclusion of this film called for its removal from
the festival's roster. They also objected to the filmmaker being
awarded the Armin T. Wegner award (Wegner was the German soldier who
photographically documented scenes from the Genocide). At one point
the film seemed to have been pulled from the line-up. But ultimately,
it was shown. There was a Facebook exchange by partisans on both sides
of this issue. As to the award, it was rescinded, and some other award
given to the filmmaker. Of course, no one was pleased with this
situation - not the protesters, not the filmmaker's supporters, and not
the festival organizers. Harsh words and mutual recriminations rarely
lead to pleasing outcomes.
How can such an escalation of passions and negative impacts on our
community's organizations be avoided?
On the first level, organizers must be more alert to sensitive issues.
In this case, the film's advocacy of a faction that is damaging our
community should have been a red flag. Once this opportunity (i.e. not
accepting the film for screening at the festival) was missed, the die
was cast. If in response to the protests, the film had been pulled,
Arpa's reputation as the host of a film festival would be damaged.
Keeping the film in promoted a cause that's currently detrimental to
our community. The award just compounds the mess.
At this point, Arpa really had not much of a choice but to screen the
film. But what should have been done was to make a strong statement
about the damage the film's advocacy does to Armenians while
simultaneously touting Arpa's commitment to promoting the arts and
deep discussion of issues.
On the other side, it seems that the protesters missed an opportunity
to challenge and discredit the position espoused by the filmmaker in
the after-film discussion. If the comments there were as rambling and
sometimes over the top as some of the comments on Facebook or the
e-mail discussions I saw, then what happened during the discussion
probably undermined the otherwise appropriate concerns and positions
of the protesters. Accusing Arpa of being willing to support Turkish
denialism helps no one, nor does attacking Arpa's legitimacy. The
comments should have been focused on and limited to addressing the
issues raised in the movie and the flawed motivations of its maker.
So please, in the future, anyone organizing public, high visibility,
events, be VERY attuned to our communities' and nation's needs and
concerns. Future protesters, please, focus the criticism and attacks
on the offender(s) and keep them sharp but appropriate. Let's prevent
problems and when they unavoidably do rise, let's solve them without
creating other problems or damaging our community.
http://asbarez.com/114717/river-of-trouble/
From: A. Papazian
BY GAREN YEGPARIAN
Some might remember the problem-plagued tunnel that was built in the
1980s to channel the waters of the Arpa River to Lake Sevan to halt
the precipitous decline of its water levels. I hope that its namesake
organization, Arpa Foundation for Film, Music, and Art (AFFMA), will
not be similarly impacted after a troublesome episode at this year's
annual Arpa International Film Festival.
I became aware of the issue by being included in a long string of
e-mails among the festival's organizers and protesters. The point of
contention was a film entered by an American who fought in Libya with
the rebels and now is supporting the rebels in Syria. In the interest
of full disclosure, please know that I have not seen the film. I will
not name it or its maker since I have no desire to promote that cause,
and because the point of my writing this piece is to suggest better
ways to handle similar situations in the future.
The film is billed as a documentary, but by all accounts is more of an
advocacy piece that, according to one of the e-mails, will be used to
help convince members of the U.S. Congress to support U.S. military
involvement in Syria. The problem lies therein. Since the rebels pose
a threat to the Armenian community in Syria, promoting something that
supports them in an Armenian forum is at best problematic.
Those protesting inclusion of this film called for its removal from
the festival's roster. They also objected to the filmmaker being
awarded the Armin T. Wegner award (Wegner was the German soldier who
photographically documented scenes from the Genocide). At one point
the film seemed to have been pulled from the line-up. But ultimately,
it was shown. There was a Facebook exchange by partisans on both sides
of this issue. As to the award, it was rescinded, and some other award
given to the filmmaker. Of course, no one was pleased with this
situation - not the protesters, not the filmmaker's supporters, and not
the festival organizers. Harsh words and mutual recriminations rarely
lead to pleasing outcomes.
How can such an escalation of passions and negative impacts on our
community's organizations be avoided?
On the first level, organizers must be more alert to sensitive issues.
In this case, the film's advocacy of a faction that is damaging our
community should have been a red flag. Once this opportunity (i.e. not
accepting the film for screening at the festival) was missed, the die
was cast. If in response to the protests, the film had been pulled,
Arpa's reputation as the host of a film festival would be damaged.
Keeping the film in promoted a cause that's currently detrimental to
our community. The award just compounds the mess.
At this point, Arpa really had not much of a choice but to screen the
film. But what should have been done was to make a strong statement
about the damage the film's advocacy does to Armenians while
simultaneously touting Arpa's commitment to promoting the arts and
deep discussion of issues.
On the other side, it seems that the protesters missed an opportunity
to challenge and discredit the position espoused by the filmmaker in
the after-film discussion. If the comments there were as rambling and
sometimes over the top as some of the comments on Facebook or the
e-mail discussions I saw, then what happened during the discussion
probably undermined the otherwise appropriate concerns and positions
of the protesters. Accusing Arpa of being willing to support Turkish
denialism helps no one, nor does attacking Arpa's legitimacy. The
comments should have been focused on and limited to addressing the
issues raised in the movie and the flawed motivations of its maker.
So please, in the future, anyone organizing public, high visibility,
events, be VERY attuned to our communities' and nation's needs and
concerns. Future protesters, please, focus the criticism and attacks
on the offender(s) and keep them sharp but appropriate. Let's prevent
problems and when they unavoidably do rise, let's solve them without
creating other problems or damaging our community.
http://asbarez.com/114717/river-of-trouble/
From: A. Papazian