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    Categories: 2021

Film: Women of 1915: Armenian Genocide documentary starts streaming on Amazon

Public Radio of Armenia
March 8 2021

Multi-award-winning Women of 1915” feature-length documentary film is starting to stream on Amazon Vide today in observance of International Women’s Day, Asbarez reports.

This documentary reveals that it was women who were left behind to experience the worst kind of torture and the most heroic form of resilience during the Armenian Genocide of 1915. The film delineates the stories of these women, along with the lasting impact they had on the lives they saved and touched. 

“We decided to stream the premiere of ‘Women of 1915 on Amazon Video to coincide with International Women’s Day, because of the film’s universal appeal. One of the women profiled in our film is Victoria Artinian who, having survived the Armenian Genocide and the Great Fire of Smyrna in 1922, migrated to United States.  From the ‘ashes’ of death and destruction in her homeland, she succeeded in overcoming these impossible traumatic events to live the American Dream.  Amazingly, she also helped raise her daughter’s adopted son who, beginning in his 20s set a path to literally change the world for Victoria Artinian was Steve Job’s adoptive grandmother,” said four-time Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker, Bared Maronian.

Additionally, “Women of 1915” combines facts and emotions to honor the brave American and European women including American volunteer Mary Louise Graffam, Japanese diplomat Diana Apkar, and Danish missionary Maria Jacobsen, who dedicated their lives to rescue the survivors of the Armenian Genocide, while risking their own. 

Women of 1915” was made possible by a principal partnership between Armenoid Productions, Armenian Relief Society of Eastern USA and Ararat Eskijian Museum. The Armenian Relief Society of Canada, Armenian Relief Society of Western USA, AGBU and AGBU –Hye Geen also made considerable contributions to this project.

Screened in over 40 cities around the world, this documentary was officially selected by the Switzerland International Film Festival and has received Best Documentary Awards at the International Independent Film Awards, Aphrodite Film Awards, Docs Without Borders Film Festival, and the Pomegranate Film Festival. The ARPA Film Festival’s most prestigious Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award honored Bared Maronian, the director of “Women of 1915.”  

The creative team behind “Women of 1915” includes, Gloria Sanders as narrator, Bardig Kouyoumdjian as the director of photography, C-rouge as the composer, and Hooshere as the performer. Original soundtrack is available at Spotify and Apple Music.

Emil Lazarian: “I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS