Category: 2017

Winning Films Include Joe Berlinger’s ‘Intent to Destroy’ for Best Documentary and ‘Mariam’s Day Off’ from Armenia for Best Short Honorees Terry George, Carl Weathers, Chris Cornell and Alexander Dinelaris Presented with Unique Gifts

HOLLYWOOD–The 20th Arpa International Film Festival and Awards Gala was full of memorable moments this year. An unprecedented number of guests attended the three-day film festival, held at Hollywood’s historic Egyptian Theatre from November 3-5. The opening night program featuring the French biopic ‘Dalida’ was sold to capacity, as were the centerpiece films ‘Intent to Destroy’ and ‘Dead on Arrival’ on Saturday evening.

The celebratory weekend closed with a spectacular sold-out Awards Gala held at the Loews Hollywood Hotel on Sunday, November 5. Over 400 guests attended the special 20th anniversary evening hosted by filmmaker Eric Nazarian (The Blue Hour, Bolis, Three Christs, The Sandcastle Girls). The program included special musical performances by theremin virtuoso Armen Ra and vocalist Mister X.

Awards were presented to the 5 winning films in the Best Shorts, Best Documentary, Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Feature categories. Honorees Terry George, Carl Weathers, Alexander Dinelaris and Chris Cornell (posthumously) were given touching tributes, along with one-of-a-kind gifts.

Special guests throughout the weekend included Serj Tankian, Angela Sarafyan, Billy Flynn, Barbara Carrera, Ara Keshishian, Ken Davitian, Stephen C. Sepher, Rory Fradella, Nazo Bravo, Lillo Brancato, Scottie Thompson.

Unique Khachkar presented to Terry George
Academy Award-winning screenwriter-director Terry George (The Promise, In the Name of the Father, Hotel Rwanda, The Shore, Some Mother’s Son) received the prestigious Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award named after the German soldier/medic who was stationed in the Ottoman Empire during the Armenian Genocide and documented the atrocities he witnessed in photographs.

Arpa’s coveted Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award, presented each year to a filmmaker whose work contributes toward the struggle for social consciousness and human rights, was awarded to Terry George in recognition of his extensive body of films that have shed light on the situation in his native Northern Ireland, the Rwandan Genocide, and the Armenian Genocide.

Terry George also received a unique khachkar (stone-cross) sculpted by local artist Hrach Gukasyan. The tradition of etching crosses on stone is unique to the Armenian and Irish nations. A special khachkar with a Celtic cross surrounded by Armenian motifs was commissioned by Arpa, symbolizing the Armenian people’s gratitude to the Irish filmmaker.

Boxing Belt presented to Carl Weathers
Carl Weathers, the beloved actor best known for his portrayal of Apollo Creed in the Rocky series, was the recipient of Arpa’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Weathers has also starred in films such as Predator, Action Jackson, Hurricane Smith, Happy Gilmore and Little Nicky. Presenting the Lifetime Achievement Award to the legendary actor was award-winning writer/producer Jason Wilborn, best known for his work on Queen Sugar, Brothers and Sisters and American Dreams.

Weathers received a special personalized authentic championship boxing belt designed and gifted by SARTONK, originator of the modern boxing belt. Edward Majian’s SARTONK was founded based on the designs of his grandfather Ardash Sahagian’s boxing belts which serve as the blueprint for all of today’s championship boxing and MMA belts.

Portrait presented to Angela Sarafyan to be gifted to Family of Chris Cornell
This year’s Lifetime Legacy Award was posthumously awarded to music icon Chris Cornell, whose life came to a tragic end early this year. Chris Cornell, best known as the lead vocalist for the rock bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, as well as the founder and frontman of Temple of the Dog, was also a human rights activist committed to the world refugee crisis and the despair of vulnerable children. The Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter’s last solo release was the charity single “The Promise” written for the motion picture of the same name.

Due to unforeseen circumstances, the Cornell Family was unable to attend the Gala. There to accept the Lifetime Legacy Award on behalf of the family was beloved actress Angela Sarafyan (Westworld, The Promise), a recipient of the Arpa Rising Star Award in 2014. Sarafyan was visibly moved after a touching tribute reel to Chris Cornell and emphasized his philanthropic and humanitarian efforts. A specially-commissioned portrait of Chris Cornell was gifted by renowned artist Emil Kazaz and presented to Sarafyan.

Specially Engraved Mont Blanc Pen presented to Screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris
Oscar-winning screenwriter Alexander Dinelaris, best known for his original screenplay for the 2014 film Birdman, received Arpa’s Career Achievement Award. His body of work includes numerous theatrical pieces and musicals, including The Bodyguard featuring the music of Whitney Houston, and the critically-acclaimed On Your Feet! Broadway musical about the life and career of Gloria Estefan. Alexander Dinelaris’ earlier works include the powerful play “Red Dog Howls” in which he touches upon the Armenian Genocide. The piece was influenced by his Armenian grandmother, who played an important role in his younger years.

The Award was presented to Dinelaris by Michael Peretzian, with whom he collaborated with on the play “Red Dog Howls.” Peretzian is known for representing many distinguished screenwriters and directors, including John Madden and Anthony Minghella. Both Peretzian and Dinelaris in their remarks touched upon their Armenian ancestry and the need to be more accepting of Americans who come from different ethnic backgrounds. Dinelaris was also presented with a specially engraved Mont Blanc pen gifted by Bhindi Jewellers, in recognition of his superb writing.

2017 Arpa IFF Winning Films

Best Feature Film – “DALIDA” (France, 2016)
The award was presented by two-time Golden Globe nominated actress Barbara Carrera who starred in close to 40 movies, including the James Bond film Never Say Never Again, The Island of Dr. Moreau and Embryo.

DALIDA is an intimate portrait based on the real story of a strong, fiercely independent woman whose 30-year dazzling career was punctuated by tragic events, with no less than three of her lovers committing suicide. With over 170 million albums sold, Dalida was the first singer to receive platinum and diamond discs, some of her best hits including “Bang Bang”, “Paroles Paroles”, and “Avec Le Temps”. Dalida continued to hold concerts until her last days, but her suicide in 1987 immortalized her iconic image as a diva and renowned singer.

Best Documentary Film – “INTENT TO DESTROY” (USA, 2017)
The award was presented to Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joe Berlinger by top Eileen Ford model Ronnie Carol known for her role as Juliette Bagradian in the movie “40 Days of Musa Dagh” along with a recurring role on the soap As the World Turns.

Pulling back the curtain on mass murder censorship in Hollywood due to U.S. government pressure to appease a strategic ally, INTENT TO DESTROY embeds with a historic feature film production as a springboard to explore the violent history of the Armenian Genocide and legacy of Turkish suppression and denial over the past century.

Joe Berlinger’s thirteenth feature documentary film captures the cinematic and political challenges of producing a historically meaningful, big budget feature film in an environment rife with political suppression and threats of retaliation. By intertwining these three separate threads the modern-day production of THE PROMISE, the history of the Genocide and the century of international repression, INTENT TO DESTROY coalesces to provide a comprehensive view on the atrocities of 1915 to 1923 and their resounding aftermath right up until the present day.

INTENT TO DESTROY will be released theatrically on November 10 at the following locations: (Laemmle’s Playhouse in Pasadena; Pacific Theaters 18 in Glendale at the Americana at Brand; Village East Cinema in New York City.

Best Short Film – “MARIAM’S DAY OFF” (Armenia, 2016)
The Award was presented by actor Yancey Arias from the NBC series Kingpin and the FX series Thief. Arshak Amirbekyan’s film, shot in Armenia, is about a young prostitute who meets an artist in a park, gets invited to a modeling session and finds herself in a rather new and exciting world of artists; but when night falls, she has to return to her regular life in the park. The Award was accepted by actor/director Ashot Adamyan who stars in the film.

Best Screenplay – “THE LIBERATION OF SKOPJE” (Macedonia/Croatia/Finland, 2016), Writers: Dusan Jovanovic, Rade Šerbedžija, Danilo Šerbedžija
THE LIBERATION OF SKOPJE captures the horrors and suffering of the Second World War, portrayed in bittersweet terms through the eyes of 11-year-old Zoran whose father has joined the partisans to fight the German occupiers and whose mother becomes involved with a German officer.

Best Direction – “H.O.M.E” (USA, 2016) Director: Daniel Maldonado
H.O.M.E. is a film about urban communication, alienation and the human condition. Part lyrical tone poem of NYC, its comprised of 2 stories involving intimate & meaningful encounters through the lens of a “disconnected” city in constant motion.
Over the course of 20 years, Arpa International Film Festival has continuously provided a platform dedicated to cultivating cultural understanding and global empathy for international cinema. Recognized as one of the oldest independent film festivals for international cinema in Los Angeles, Arpa has bridged cultural divides by fostering dialogue among people of diverse backgrounds. By showcasing local, international and Armenian films that explore critical issues such as war, genocide, dual identities, exile and multi-culturalism, Arpa has solidified its role in safeguarding films that continue to make a social impact.

One of the overarching goals of Arpa Foundation for Film, Music & Art (AFFMA) in launching its signature Arpa International Film Festival two decades ago, was to create an arena that offers Armenian filmmakers, Armenian films and Armenian-themed films wider exposure in Hollywood. In light of its landmark anniversary, AFFMA has decided to create internship opportunities for students of Armenian heritage who are pursuing careers in cinema and entertainment. This will augment previous forms of support given to filmmakers over the past 20 years, and allow the organization to deliver an increased number of film screenings and other events promoting Armenian artists year-round.

BY ARA KHACHATOURIAN

For the past three days students from university students in Yerevan have been staging demonstrations protesting a new law passed by parliament that would eliminate deferment from Armenia’s mandatory military service for students attending university, essentially calling for all males to enlist in the military at the age of 18.

The student protesters argue that without the determents currently in place it would become harder to go to college and “become scientists or scholar.”

On Thursday, several organizers of the student protests met with Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan, who was accompanied by Armenia defense and education ministers, Vigen Sargsyan and Levon Mkrtrchyan, who had already met with student leaders a day before.

Much to the dismay of the students, Karapetyan was steadfast in defending the measure, which the government argues only impacts a small percentage—15 percent—of students who receive scholarships to study at state universities. Students who pay for higher education already are drafted at 18.

The prime minister also told the students to offer amendments that may be considered at the time of implementing the measure.

“The opposite side did not share our view. Therefore, we will continue our struggle,” one of the protest leaders told more than a 100 fellow students rallying outside the prime minister’s office in Yerevan, reported Azatutyun.am. Another leader urged the students to continue the boycott that began on Tuesday.

Mkrtchyan, the education minister, gave the students a similar explanation when he met with them on Wednesday.

“When it comes to serving the homeland, no citizen of the Republic of Armenia will have privileges,” Mkrtchyan told several organizers, according to Azatutyun.am. He argued that more than 85 percent of male students attending state-run universities are already drafted for military service at 18.

“There is quite strong political support behind [the bill] … I don’t think that this bill is subject to withdrawal,” added Mkrtchyan.

Should there be a larger discussion about—the elephant in the room—what has given impetus to this bill?

Will children of government officials also enlist at 18 or will they use their parents’ positions to avoid military service? And, is emigration of young people from Armenia impacting service in Armenia’s Armed Forces?

YEREVAN—Armenia’s national soccer team on Thursday beat Belarus 4 to 1 in a friendly match held at Vazgen Sargsyan Stadium.

Aras Ozbiliz opened the score in the 41st minute before Henirkh Mkhitaryan made it 2-0 four minutes later.

Armenia’s Rumyan Hovsepyan and Harutyun Vardanyan added two more goals in the second half, in the 5th and 84th minutes respectively.

Anton Saroka scored the only goal for his team form a penalty kick in the 58th minute.

LITTLE ARMENIA–Ahead of the November 10 theatrical release of Armenian Genocide documentary “Intent to Destroy” in Los Angeles and New York, Asbarez Editor Ara Khachatourian sat down with the film’s award-winning director Joe Berlinger to discuss the making of the film, as well as the continued denial of the Armenian Genocide.

BY GAREN YEGPARIAN

The father of “Frankenfoods”* is feeling out the farms of Armenia! The pitchforks and torches, at least figuratively, must be prepared. Much like in the old black-and-white horror movies when the Frankenstein monster is being chased by the villagers, Monsanto should be hounded out of Armenia before it can cause the kind of economic and environmental damage it has heaped on American farmlands.

Last week, the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, just doing its job, announced  that Monsanto and Valmont had participated in a program which was meant introduce and connect them to Armenia’s agricultural sector. To read it is to think these two huge companies will be able to restore the Garden of Eden to Armenia! Meanwhile the frightful reality is very much the opposite.

First, let’s dispense with Valmont. Judging by their website, they are an equipment and machinery firm. In the agriculture sector, they seem to focus on irrigation. It may be that they are a relatively benign company. I do not know and have not heard of them previously. But, they also provide equipment for mining, which rings some alarm bells given the rampant environmentally destructive mining that is ravaging parts of the Republic of Armenia’s (RoA) relatively pristine regions. Maybe Valmont wants to get a foot in RoA’s economic door through agriculture then expand to mining. Given the constraints of a publication deadline, I could not dig deeper into this aspect, but it deserves to be researched.

Next, Monsanto,  described as a company “everyone loves to hate” because of its hideous corporate practices. A few decades ago, Monsanto shifted gears and went from being a primarily chemical company to an agricultural seed and “pesticides” company. I will use the word pesticide generically, since Monsanto is using it that way, to describe anything that is used to fight things that can harm crops and crop yields, even though the main concern at this point is herbicides – poisonous chemicals that kills undesirable plants, i.e. weeds, which have been the bane of farmers since humans first started planting and reaping. Along the way, Monsanto has been buying up smaller competitors so that now it controls effective-monopoly-level percentages of the seed sold for some major crops.

Here’s what Monsanto is known for doing and why introducing those practices to the RoA would be a disaster.

Seeds are engineered, genetically modified (please see sidebar “What Is a GMO”), to have certain traits, and patented (something which was not allowed until a 1980 Supreme Court decision enabled it). In this case, the trait is resistance to pesticide, most famously, glyphosate (sold as “Roundup”). The seeds are then sold to farmers who like the advantage of not having to weed their fields and later, after harvest, till the soil to bury the dead plants. But, Monsanto makes the farmers agree that they will NOT save seeds from their crops to plant the next year. Imagine! A fundamental practice in farming, keeping some part of the crop to plant next year’s crop, is forbidden! This way, Monsanto has the farmers by the throat since they have to buy its seeds year after year. The farmers go about their business and apply the glyphosate.

But, there’s something called wind on this planet. It causes some of the pesticide to blow over to the next-door farmer who is not using “roundup-ready” seeds. What happens? Given how potent glyphosate is, the neighbors plants suffer or die, harming that farmer’s yield and profits. Also, pollen gets blown around and the neighboring farm’s plants receive some of the Monsanto-patented-pollen. The neighbor can’t tell this has happened (no one can just by looking, the seeds have to be tested) and saves seed to plant the next year.

Monsanto hires private investigators and tracks farmers it suspects might be cheating on their contracts. Or, it gets seed from its non-customers to check if they have somehow gotten some of its patented product. Legitimately, if a farmer who signed a contract with Monsanto, the company should expect compliance with its conditions. But why should the neighbor, whose seeds have been adulterated through no action or fault of her/his own, be expected to comply with Monsanto’s conditions? Instead of Monsanto being found at fault for “infecting” the neighbor’s crops, I recall (it has been some years and this may have changed) that courts found the neighbor had to comply with Monsanto’s predatory practices! Monsanto has taken hundreds of small farmers to court annually in this way.

Now let’s move on to glyphosate/Roundup itself. It is extremely toxic and must be applied under specified conditions. Yet, people use it on their extensively lawns and government agencies on public lands. Fortunately, some localities have started banning it. In my awareness, the City of Irvine has banned its use, as has Burbank’s School district, with the City of Burbank now having discussions about banning it.

It’s not just glyphosate. Dicamba, another pesticide sold by Monsanto (and others) has damaged some 3.6 million acres of soybeans in the U.S. this year – that’s 4% of the crop. It turns out Dicamba volatilizes (evaporates) fairly readily, so it spreads to unintended locations. Another, new, Monsanto product, NemaStrike, designed to kills worms, was set to go to market in 2018. But, because of extensive reports of skin rashes, it has been put on hold, with Monsanto blaming farmers for mishandling it. Why should something that is going into our food supply be so risky to use?

Let’s forget about whether the genetically modified seeds that Monsanto is likely to sell to Armenian farmers will have any health effects, since the effects of “weird” (see the sidebar again) GMOs on humans is not yet settled science. Do we want Monsanto’s practices foisted on RoA’s farmers? They are already hurting from a scam from a few years ago (another example of corruption there) which gave many of them low-quality seeds passed off as high-quality Russian seeds at a correspondingly high price. Many of them lost their land and livelihood as a result.

Do we want one struggling Armenian farmer inadvertently killing off an equally-strapped neighbor’s crops?

Do want our villagers being dragged into Armenia’s notoriously unjust courts by a behemoth such as Monsanto whose on-site henchmen are likely to buy off the relevant authorities?

Do we want our homeland’s reputation as a source of clean, organic, foodstuffs sullied by the presence of a toxics-based form of agriculture?

Yerevan should be approaching institutions such as Holland’s Wageningen University & Research described in the September 2017 issue of National Geographic. Since World War II, the Dutch have managed to achieve huge increases in crop yields through technological innovations while using as much as 97% less toxic substances.

Already, reactions to this potential toxic invasion of our homeland with its attendant economically and socially disruptive aftereffects have elicited a strong response both from the Diaspora and the homeland. It’s interesting that just three days after its original press release, the American Embassy in Armenia is quoted by the news.am website as stating, “Monsanto products have been sold in Armenia since 2006…” I did some poking around, and as of this writing, no one seems to know what these products are. The Embassy also said, “The decision on which products and services to use, if any, is ultimately up to Armenia’s farmers and agribusinesses.”

Right… once the pressure is on and the snowball effect of neighbors’ use of toxics forcing others to use Monsanto’s seeds picks up momentum, no family farmer will be able to resist the pressure to relent and use Monsanto’s poisons.

Speak out forcefully against the invasion of our homeland by Monsanto. Clearly, the heat is on, judging by the Embassy’s hedging, and that’s a good thing! Our lobbying groups should take a stand, perhaps cooperating with the numerous organizations that are fighting these battles. Let’s not allow our compatriots to, effectively, become Monsanto’s serfs barely more than a century after they were freed from such servitude to Kurdish and Turkish local chieftains.

In Armenia, the next time Monsanto shows up, demonstrations featuring pitchforks and torches should be organized!

*Frankenfoods is a term used to describe foodstuffs made with genetically modified plants and animals whose safety is suspect to many observers.

***

What Is a GMO?

Since GMO is a term that is inseparable from Monsanto, I thought it deserved to be defined to help with grasping the points made in my article this week.

As I understand it, GMOs – genetically modified organisms — come in three categories which I’ll name traditional, accelerated, and weird.

A “traditional” GMO is nothing more than the product of selective breeding. Humans have been doing this since we began farming. By saving the seed of the biggest apple, or sweetest grape, or the most drought tolerant wheat, over time we bred the varieties of plants that best suit our needs. We’ve done the same with animals. Cows, dogs, and horses are great examples of the same process. Think of cows that are best for milking rather than barbecuing, dogs that are best for hunting rather than shepherding, and horses that pull plows rather than win races. Effectively what we have done is to modify the genetic makeup of these organisms over time to suit our needs.

The “accelerated” GMO is essentially the same as the traditional, except that we leap-frog over the generations of breeding by modifying the genetic makeup of the organism directly. We can do this nowadays because in many cases we know which gene does what. In the above examples, we would need to know which gene enlarges the apple, sweetens the grape, and protects the wheat. We’re not quite that far along in fiddling with animals genes, but we’re not far (though I may be behind the times on this point).

The “weird” GMO is just that. This is where someone may decide to put a bird gene in a soybean plant (I am making this combination up) to get a certain desired result in the soybean that is “better” in some way. Or, corn seeds might be modified in such a way that they are resistant to herbicides that would otherwise kill them.