Armenian Film Screenings at Hammer

I AM ARMENIAN

A Yearlong Screening Series

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Hammer Museum in Westwood dedicate 2015 to an exploration of multiple facets of Armenian culture, history, and landscape through film. All screenings are FREE.

Upcoming Screenings at the Billy Wilder Theatre:

 

Wednesday JAN. 28 at 7:30pm
CALENDAR (1993) - Atom Egoyan

 

A photographer traveling in Armenia for a calendar project realizes that his wife, an Armenian translator, is falling in love with their driver and unofficial tour guide. The Academy Award–nominated director Atom Egoyan (The Sweet Hereafter) reveals the unraveling of a marriage through a series of flash-forwards. 74 min.

 

Q&A with Dr. Carla Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation and Robert Lantos, producer of Ararat, following the screening.

 

 

Wednesday FEB. 4 at 7:30pm
THE LARK FARM (2010) - Paolo & Vittorio Taviani

(La masseria delle allodole)

 

An Armenian family becomes caught up in the Ottoman Turkish government’s annihilation of the Armenian people between 1915 and 1923. This Italian film by brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani is adapted from the best-selling novel by Antonia Arslan. 122 min.

Wednesday MARCH 25 at 7:30pm
RAVISHED ARMENIA (1919) - Oscar Apfel

 The 1919 silent film Ravished Armenia tells the incredible story of Aurora Mardiganian, an Armenian girl caught up in the 1915 Armenian Genocide. After witnessing the murder of her family, Aurora was kidnapped, forced to march over fourteen hundred miles, and sold into slavery before finally escaping to Europe and then the U.S.. Her story was the basis for a hugely popular book and film, starring Aurora herself, which was seen by thousands of people around the world. Filmmaker Carla Garapedian, from the Armenian Film Foundation, and Anthony Slide, author of Ravished Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian and former film historian of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, bring Aurora’s story to life with rare film clips and photos.


Tuesday APRIL 14 at 7:30pm
AGHET - Ein Völkermord (2010) - Eric Friedler

 

The prizewinning film Aghet – Ein Völkermord (Armenian for "the catastrophe") by acclaimed German film maker Eric Friedler tells the story of the Armenian genocide, one of the darkest chapters of the First World War. Though there is an international consensus that up to 1.5 million Armenians died in the Ottoman Turkish Empire the Armenian genocide is still not recognized by Turkey as a historical fact. Aghet – Ein Völkermord deals with the political motives for this continuing silence. This innovative German documentary relies on authentic testimonies by European and American personnel stationed in the Near East at the time and Armenian survivors. Famous German actors give these eyewitnesses finally the opportunity to make their voices heard.  Director Eric Friedler joins us for a discussion following the screening. 90 min.

Q&A with Eric Friedler follows the screening
 

Thursday MAY 14 at 7:30pm
THE RIVER RAN RED (2008) - J. Michael Hagopian

 

 

The River Ran Red is the epic search for survivors of the Armenian genocide of 1915 along the Euphrates River. From his archives of 400 testimonies of survivors and eyewitnesses, the award-winning filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian weaves a compelling story of terrifying intensity, taking the viewer from the highland waters of the river to the burning deserts of Syria. 60 min.

 

Tuesday JUNE 23 at 7:30pm
WITHOUT GORKY (2011) - Cosima Spender

 

 

Without Gorky explores the artistic and personal legacy of artist Arshile Gorky (1904–1948) through interviews with family members, archival photographs, and the artist’s own work. 58 min.

 

A discussion with Kim S. Theriault, author of Rethinking Arshile Gorky, and filmmaker Carla Garapedian follows the screening.

 

Wednesday JULY 1 at 7:30pm
SILK STOCKINGS (1957) - Rouben Mamoulian

 

 

Armenian director Rouben Mamoulian’s (1897-1987) musical retelling of the story of Russian femme fatale Ninotchka features Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, and Peter Lorre with songs by Cole Porter. 117 min.

 

A discussion with David Luhrssen, author of Mamoulian: Life on Stage and Screen, and filmmaker Carla Garapedian follows the screening.

 

 

Thursday AUGUST 27 at 7:30pm

THE LAST TIGHTROPE DANCER IN ARMENIA (2009) - Arman Yeritsyan & Inna Sahakyan

 

 

Once the most celebrated masters of the ancient art of tightrope dancing in Armenia, Zhora and Knyaz—longtime bitter rivals—join forces to train the only student of tightrope dancing left in their country—a 16-year old orphan. 52 min.

 

 

Tuesday SEPTEMBER 22 at 7:30pm
A STORY OF PEOPLE IN WAR AND PEACE (2007) - Vardan Hovhannisyan

 

 

Over the course of five days in 1994, the filmmaker Vardan Hovhannisyan documented a close-range battle of the Karabakh War, in which half the soldiers were wounded and a full third killed. Twelve years later he finds survivors, men with whom he shared a terrifying trench. His intimate conversations with these veterans demonstrate the cost of war and what it is to survive the peace. 69 min. 

 

Wednesday OCTOBER 21 at 7:30pm
HERE (2012) - Braden King

 

 

Will Shepard is an American satellite-mapping engineer contracted to render a survey of Armenia. He’s been doing it on his own, all over the world, but on this trip his measurements are not adding up. Then he meets Gadarine Najarian, an intriguing expatriate Armenian art photographer returning home after making her name abroad. In this beautifully shot film, their relationship enters dimensions and tensions deeper than a flat visual. 126 min.

 

Thursday NOVEMBER 19 at 7:30pm
VODKA LEMON (2003) - Hiner Saleem

 

 

The central character in this comedy set amid a snowy Yazidi Kurdish village in post-Soviet Armenia is Hamo, a widower with three worthless sons. Hamo is so poor that he’s about to sell off his treasured military uniform when he meets Nina, a lovely widow who works at the village’s sparsely attended bar, Vodka Lemon, which is about to close. Selected to play at the Toronto Film Festival and in MoMA’s New Directors / New Films Festival. 88 min.

 

 

 

Tuesday DECEMBER 15 at 7:30pm 

THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (1968) - Sergei Parajanov

 

 

Restored by Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation, this masterpiece is a can’t-miss for students of film. Its director graduated from the Soviet Russian All-Union State Institute of Cinematography in Moscow in 1951 but during the film’s original release was jailed courtesy of Soviet authorities. A chronicle of the life of Sayat Nova, the revered Armenian troubadour, it is no standard biopic but instead a cinematic poem. 79 min.

 

 

RELATED PROGRAMMING AT HAMMER FORUM:

 

THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE: A CENTURY OF DENIAL

Wednesday FEB. 11 at 7:30pm

 

Armenians and human rights advocates around the world commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the Armenian genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenian people were killed between 1915 and 1923. Richard Hovannisian, a professor of Armenian and Near Eastern History at UCLA, and David L. Phillips, director of the Peace-building and Rights Program at Columbia University, offer an in-depth look at the Turkish refusal to recognize the genocide and efforts to foster dialogue and reconciliation between Turks and Armenians.