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FILM SERIES EXPLORES THE LEGACY OF GENOCIDE
18:38, 07 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Three films will be showing throughout the month of April, looking at
past recognized and unrecognized genocides in the world. The films
will screen at Portland State and in the surrounding area, Portland
State Vanduard reports.
The films' focus will be on mass atrocities committed against Armenians
100 years ago, which are not legally recognized by the current Turkish
government as genocide.
"These movies bring up really important questions that we want to
ask the PSU community," said Tavi Gupta, director of the Holocaust
and Genocide Studies Project at PSU. "The Armenian Genocide is a
hinge-point for all three movies we are playing this year."
After each film there will be a discussion with the audience about
the issues brought up. The first movie, Screamers, will play on April
9 in Smith Memorial Student Union.
Screamers is a 2007 documentary that follows the band System of a
Down while they spread information about modern genocides and how
the Armenian genocide, begun in 1915, has influenced the way current
genocide can be defined or ignored.
The second movie, and most acclaimed of the three, Watchers of the Sky,
won two 2014 Sundance Film Festival awards, a Monadnock International
Film Festival award and Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film
Festival.
It will show April 14 at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
Watchers of the Sky follows the life of Raphael Lemkin--a Polish Jew
who lost many friends and family in the Holocaust--on his journey to
find legal recognition of those crimes and others like them. Lemkin
eventually coined the word genocide.
"Raphael Lemkin created the word genocide in part because of the
Armenian genocide, which of course wasn't called that then," said
Amelia Green-Dove, producer of Watchers of the Sky.
By giving these mass atrocities a name, Lemkin, in effect, gave a
way to recognize them.
"How does the word genocide impact the way we look at mass atrocity?"
Gupta said. "And how has language shifted the way we legally and
socially address these events?"
These are issues the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project would
like to address with these screenings.
The third film, AGHET: Ein Volkermord, will be showing on April 23
in SMSU.
AGHET: Ein Volkermord is a 2010 documentary specifically about the
Armenian genocide with never-before-seen footage and documents on the
historic telling of the mass atrocity, and of the current Turkish
government's refusal, since World War I to classify the events as
genocide.
"Currently, 22 countries and 43 states within the USA recognize the
Armenian genocide," Gupta said.
The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project is a PSU program started
in 2012 and is funded through private donations to the Portland Center
for Public Humanities.
The program seeks to engage students, faculty and the Portland
community members in the study of the Holocaust and other genocides.
It works with survivors, local organizations and the community
to educate about both the local and global effects of genocide,
according to the group's MYPSU profile.
"Students and community members are welcome to email and connect
with ideas and thoughts at our email, Facebook page...or Twitter,"
Gupta said. "We welcome anyone who wants to be involved."
Years ago Raphael Lemkin asked: "Why is the killing of a million
people a lesser crime than the killing of a single individual?"
"Lemkin would spend his entire life trying to address this,"
Green-Dove said.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/07/film-series-explores-the-legacy-of-genocide/
http://psuvanguard.com/arts/film-series-explores-the-legacy-of-genocide/
18:38, 07 Apr 2015
Siranush Ghazanchyan
Three films will be showing throughout the month of April, looking at
past recognized and unrecognized genocides in the world. The films
will screen at Portland State and in the surrounding area, Portland
State Vanduard reports.
The films' focus will be on mass atrocities committed against Armenians
100 years ago, which are not legally recognized by the current Turkish
government as genocide.
"These movies bring up really important questions that we want to
ask the PSU community," said Tavi Gupta, director of the Holocaust
and Genocide Studies Project at PSU. "The Armenian Genocide is a
hinge-point for all three movies we are playing this year."
After each film there will be a discussion with the audience about
the issues brought up. The first movie, Screamers, will play on April
9 in Smith Memorial Student Union.
Screamers is a 2007 documentary that follows the band System of a
Down while they spread information about modern genocides and how
the Armenian genocide, begun in 1915, has influenced the way current
genocide can be defined or ignored.
The second movie, and most acclaimed of the three, Watchers of the Sky,
won two 2014 Sundance Film Festival awards, a Monadnock International
Film Festival award and Best Documentary at the Jerusalem Film
Festival.
It will show April 14 at the NW Film Center's Whitsell Auditorium.
Watchers of the Sky follows the life of Raphael Lemkin--a Polish Jew
who lost many friends and family in the Holocaust--on his journey to
find legal recognition of those crimes and others like them. Lemkin
eventually coined the word genocide.
"Raphael Lemkin created the word genocide in part because of the
Armenian genocide, which of course wasn't called that then," said
Amelia Green-Dove, producer of Watchers of the Sky.
By giving these mass atrocities a name, Lemkin, in effect, gave a
way to recognize them.
"How does the word genocide impact the way we look at mass atrocity?"
Gupta said. "And how has language shifted the way we legally and
socially address these events?"
These are issues the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project would
like to address with these screenings.
The third film, AGHET: Ein Volkermord, will be showing on April 23
in SMSU.
AGHET: Ein Volkermord is a 2010 documentary specifically about the
Armenian genocide with never-before-seen footage and documents on the
historic telling of the mass atrocity, and of the current Turkish
government's refusal, since World War I to classify the events as
genocide.
"Currently, 22 countries and 43 states within the USA recognize the
Armenian genocide," Gupta said.
The Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project is a PSU program started
in 2012 and is funded through private donations to the Portland Center
for Public Humanities.
The program seeks to engage students, faculty and the Portland
community members in the study of the Holocaust and other genocides.
It works with survivors, local organizations and the community
to educate about both the local and global effects of genocide,
according to the group's MYPSU profile.
"Students and community members are welcome to email and connect
with ideas and thoughts at our email, Facebook page...or Twitter,"
Gupta said. "We welcome anyone who wants to be involved."
Years ago Raphael Lemkin asked: "Why is the killing of a million
people a lesser crime than the killing of a single individual?"
"Lemkin would spend his entire life trying to address this,"
Green-Dove said.
http://www.armradio.am/en/2015/04/07/film-series-explores-the-legacy-of-genocide/
http://psuvanguard.com/arts/film-series-explores-the-legacy-of-genocide/