The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

[Haykakan]

Re: The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

I read a while back that Fatih didnot end up making the film because he could not get turkish actors ton play the roles. Did he find the actors he was looking for?

Except for German-Turkish film director Fatih Akin's film The Cut, which will have its premiere in a couple of days at the Venice Film Festival.

It's a very unusual film for him as most of his filmography deals with Turkish immigrants in Germany. He said some of the Cannes festival programmers had "reservations" about this film because it's a historical drama and in English so he withdrew it and opted for Venice. I hope the programmers' hesitance wasn't because of the quality; I think that was the reason for Ararat's rejection, which, admittedly, wasn't very good (although I liked the Arshile Gorky scenes -- perhaps it should have been a biopic?). I know that film had its defenders and proponents on here and within the Armenian community. To that I say (borrowing a delicious line from Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie): "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like."

[TomServo]

Re: The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

This year in Turkey a few Turks were asking me about 2015, if big things were being planned for the 100th anniversary of the genocide. Some had trepidation about it, others were looking forward to what they hoped would be a large increase in Armenian visitor numbers. I told them that I think very little that is new, and almost nothing that is substantial or important, will be happening.

Except for German-Turkish film director Fatih Akin's film The Cut, which will have its premiere in a couple of days at the Venice Film Festival.

It's a very unusual film for him as most of his filmography deals with Turkish immigrants in Germany. He said some of the Cannes festival programmers had "reservations" about this film because it's a historical drama and in English so he withdrew it and opted for Venice. I hope the programmers' hesitance wasn't because of the quality; I think that was the reason for Ararat's rejection, which, admittedly, wasn't very good (although I liked the Arshile Gorky scenes -- perhaps it should have been a biopic?). I know that film had its defenders and proponents on here and within the Armenian community. To that I say (borrowing a delicious line from Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie): "For those who like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like."

[Chubs]

Re: The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

On the 100th Anniversary Armenians should pull the Genocide bill out of congress.....and spit on their claims of humanity leader of the world.

Really? Do they actually think they are an advocate for human rights? Does Congress not know about the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi deaths orchestrated by the US?

[Eddo211]

Re: The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

On the 100th Anniversary Armenians should pull the Genocide bill out of congress.....and spit on their claims of humanity leader of the world.

[bell-the-cat]

Re: The 100th Anniversary - and Events to Mark it

California Courier Online, August 14, 2014

And, Now, For the Centenary Something...Well...Ah.
By Avedis Kevorkian

According to the news report in this publication (July 31) the Armenian mountain has labored and produced a mouse. An Armenian mouse, to be sure, but a mouse nonetheless.

I refer to the report headed, `Commemoration of the Armenian Genocide Centennial Planned in the Nation's Capital,' which indicated that the monumental memorial to honor the souls of the 1.5-million dead of the Armenian Genocide will be . . .wait for it! . . .a church service in Washington. Golly gee willikers, what a novelty! And, naturally, the service will be conducted by the Bobbsey Twin heads of the diprosopus tetrotus Armenian church--Karekin II and Aram I. And, will it be on April 24? Do pigs fly? That would make too much sense.

The report indicates that there also will be "a memorial concert, public exhibitions" as well as the "Pontifical Divine Liturgy", and all this will take place from May 7 to 10.
The planning for this monumental occasion to mark the 1915 Centenary must have taken the Committee as long as, perhaps, 30 minutes, including time for serving coffee and donuts.
Of course, the story suggests that the Centennial Committee (composed of the usual suspects) will continue to meet and will come up with other ideas. Considering that April 24, 2015, is less than nine months away, one wonders how often the Committee will meet and how many similarly brilliant ideas it will agree upon, and how it will disseminate those new similarly brilliant decisions around the country. Assuming, that is, that the Committee thinks it worthwhile to include the rest of the country in its plans.

As I have written often, what the Centenary required was a special ad hoc committee of creative people - not our self-appointed "leaders" -and should have been formed five years ago and it should not have concerned itself with any of the April 24 observances anywhere and in the intervening years.

And, its first meeting it should have had as its sole agenda a tabula rasa. Then it would be able to think creatively and the juices would flow and would have produced somethings really noteworthy. With five years of ideas and planning, it should have produced a Centenary worthy enough to be called a fitting observance.
It could have (in no particular order of importance):
--commissioned films
--commissioned plays
--commissioned a television documentary
--scheduled a series of concerts and recitals around the country
--organized a poster contest in the country's schools - judged by a committee of non-Armenian artists - which would have resulted in a touring schedule to show off the winners
--printed a souvenir memorial calendar of the 13 `winning' posters - a cover and 12 monthly illustrations
--booked 1.5-million billboards around the country for the month of April 2015 on which the `winning' posters would be depicted
--lined up key historians and agreed with them where they would be speaking
--prepared massive 'press kits' for the media
--prepared 'op-eds' to be submitted by professors, politicians, other notables
--produced 'sample' editorials for the small weeklies, fortnightlies, monthlies around the country
--presented a significant (a large cash sum and a gold medal, at least) Award to the Non-Armenian who has done most for the Armenians. (My original thought was for it to be named The Lord Bryce Award, but with the recent death of Benjamin Whitaker, his name would be ideal) and it would be presented on April 24, 2015 (and each year thereafter).
--arranged for the churches in each community to ring their bells for three minutes at Noon on April 24, 2015
--set up mini-Genocide exhibitions in local libraries or top community centers.
--intervened in the immoral Genocide Museum dispute and knocked some heads together that would have ensured the opening of the Museum on April 24, 2015.

And it would have launched the Centenary campaign in Washington at a major Press Conference on Vartanantz (with an explanation of why Vartanantz) after which the above `could have's would have rolled out on a steady basis until the weekend of April 24, 2015, which would have begun with services in Armenian Churches around the country on Friday and would have ended on Sunday, April 26, in one of the largest--if not the largest--non-Armenian church in each community so that the non-Armenians would get an idea of who we are and how long we have been here.

This ad hoc committee would have approached the Centenary plans as being directed at the non-Armenian, and if NO Armenians attended or otherwise participated in any event, so what? (What do you want to bet that the National Cathedral will be full of Armenians who want to see and be seen?) We know what happened in 1915. We must impress 1915 on everyone else. The Centenary should not be another event where the Armenians gather to tell the Armenians what happened to the Armenians.
So, instead, it would appear that the Centennial Committee still expects the lip-service politicians in Washington to truly give a damn about the Armenians and their Genocide.
The above - and more - could have been planned had the Armenians started five years ago, as I tried to do but could not enlist any Armenian support. Some of the above ideas came from the now-disbanded committee that I did form, which consisted of a Catholic, two xxxs, and a Protestant - all former journalists and former PR-types. I have told them to forget about the Centenary and to sit it out, as I plan to do.

As a PR-man, I saw this once-in-a-lifetime (at least once in my lifetime) event as offering the opportunity for a truly magnificent, memorable, monumental tribute to the martyred 1.5-million Armenians. Instead.

[bell-the-cat]

This year in Turkey a few Turks were asking me about 2015, if big things were being planned for the 100th anniversary of the genocide. Some had trepidation about it, others were looking forward to what they hoped would be a large increase in Armenian visitor numbers. I told them that I think very little that is new, and almost nothing that is substantial or important, will be happening.