Carla Garapedian Talks at NAASR

PRESS RELEASE
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)
395 Concord Ave.
Belmont, MA 02478
Tel.: 617-489-1610
Email: [email protected]

CARLA GARAPEDIAN TO SPEAK ABOUT DIGITIZATION
OF GENOCIDE SURIVIVOR ACCOUNTS AND THE SHOAH FOUNDATION

Acclaimed filmmaker Dr. Carla Garapedian will give a lecture
entitled “The Digital Revolution: Armenian Genocide Survivor Testimonies
and the Shoah Visual History Archive,'” on Friday, April 13, at 8:00
p.m., at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research
(NAASR) Center, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont, MA 02478. The lecture will
be co-sponsored by the Armenian Film Foundation (AFF), of which
Garapedian is a Board Member, and NAASR; and it will be in memory of Dr.
J. Michael Hagopian (1913-2010), founder of the AFF and NAASR’s First
Board Member for California (1959-65).

Dr. Garapedian will discuss new and exciting developments in
the way Armenian Genocide survivor and witness testimonies are being
made available to universities around the world via the Shoah Foundation
Institute’s Visual History Archive. The Shoah Foundation, founded by
filmmaker Steven Spielberg, contains 52,000 Holocaust survivor video
interviews. It is now including testimonies from other genocides,
including the Armenian Genocide. Dr. J. Michael Hagopian’s 400 filmed
survivor interviews will be the first of the Armenian Genocide
testimonies to be included in this digital collection. Dr. Garapedian,
the Project Leader for the Armenian Film Foundation’s digitization
effort, will give a demonstration of the powerful search engine, as well
as discuss the challenges of presenting survivor information via the
internet.

Garapedian is the director of the film Screamers, which was
widely credited with helping to change the public debate on recognition
of the Armenian Genocide in 2006 and 2007. Other films include Lifting
the Veil, about the brutal treatment of women in Afghanistan, and Iran
Undercover, about the underground student movement in Iran, which won
the Edward R. Murrow Award in 2005 as part of the PBS Frontline World
series. She worked closely with J. Michael Hagopian on his Witnesses
trilogy.

Garapedian earned a Ph.D. in international relations at the
London School of Economics and Political Science before working as a
producer, director, and correspondent based in London. She is the
recipient of the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award, the ABGU Generation
Next Community Hero Award, and was recently given the Clara Barton Medal
of Gratitude from the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute.

More information about Garapedian’s lecture or NAASR and its
programs for the furtherance of Armenian studies, research, and
publication may be had by calling 617-489-1610, faxing 617-484-1759,
e-mailing [email protected], or writing to NAASR, 395 Concord Ave., Belmont,
MA 02478.

Belmont, MA
March 22, 2012