Two great documentaries about Armenia from Filmakers Library
Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize in Literature, 2006 - from his website
Armenia is not in the news much these days, but a country next to it - Georgia - is. I was talking to a local MD from Syria who told me that he had been investigating the history of Georgia, and Armenia, lately because of the recent events. My first paid job was working for an Armenian in Minneapolis - Nish A. Jamgotch. Ever since I was 12 I have been interested in that country, and now with battles being fought nearby, these two excellent films from Filmmakers Library are well worth watching.
The first film I watched was “Orhan Pamuk- Facing Up to Turkey’s Past.” This Australian film is fascinating because it shows how one Turkish intellectual stood up to almost a century of denial, and millions of thugs, who wanted to kill him for speaking the truth about the 20th century’s first ethnic cleansing - the murder of one million Armenians, and 30,000 Kurds by the Turkish government in the early part of the century. Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006 and is Turkey’s best known novelist. The official and popular response to Pamuk has shown the leaders of Europe that Turkey is not civilized enough to join the EU and NATO. If you have any interest in this part of the world, which after all, is now the CENTER of our world, you should see this short but well-done film by contacting Filmakers Library.
The other film, which I enjoyed even more, is called “The Genocide in Me.” This film tells the story of the daughter of an Armenia activist in Canada who started a school to teach the Armenian children in Montreal. She talks to her parents, her grandfather, and other Armenians who endured the Armenian holocaust of 1915. She also travels back to her parents’ hometown in Armenia. While investigating the meaning of these events to her family and herself, she ask basic questions all of us need to ask since we are all brothers and sisters of these people.
Sandy Berman, my librarian friend, has been petitioning the Library of Congress, asking them to change their classification from “Armenian massacre, 1915-1923″ to “Armenian genocide.” This change will not take place soon. A few years ago the American ambassador to Turkey was fired for daring to call the events of 1915 “genocide.” You could write Barbara Tillett, the director of cataloging at LC too if you wish -
the e-mail site is http://www.loc.gov/help/contact-libarch-report.html
or write her at -
Barbara Tillett, Director , Cataloging Dept.
The Library of Congress
101 Independence Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20540
