ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
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Interview with Documentary Filmmaker Bared Maronian
Orphans Of The Genocide Explores A New Angle On The Armenian Genocide Florida-based Bared Maronian is a four-time Emmy and multi Telly award winning producer. He has post-produced national and local (Miami area) documentaries, TV programs and concerts in English and Spanish for the PBS Network. His productions have aired on over 250 TV stations throughout the US. He has also produced a number of thematically Armenian documentaries. His The Wall Of The Genocide was selected by the 11th Annual ARPA Film Festival in 2007 as well as being a Telly and a Communicator award winner for excellence in TV/Film production. His latest film, Orphans of the Genocide is a documentary dedicated to the more than 150,000 Armenian orphans of the Genocide. Here s TorontoHye s recent interview with Maronian: Q- How did the idea of making a film on the orphans of the Armenian Genocide first come about? A-In March of 2010 I received an article titled Living Proof of the Armenian Genocide by British journalist Robert Fisk published in The Independent. It was about Antoura orphanage in Lebanon, where at the turn of the century one thousand Armenian genocide orphans were being turkified under the auspices of the Fourth Commander of the Ottoman Army, Ahmad Djemal Pasha. Upon reading the article, I realized the strength of the story which was based on the findings of independent researcher Missak Kelechian, who was able to scientifically prove that a current High School building in Lebanon was once a turkification center operated by Ottoman authorities. I immediately contacted my two co-producer friends, Bedo Der-Bedrossian and Paul Andonian, and we agreed on producing a piece but we didn't know where to start until a few days later at an Armenian National Committee function where 87 year old American born Vanetsi Eddy Aprahamian got up and asked the speaker, why don t Armenian organizations bring up the Armenian orphans issue at international tribunals? If there are tens of thousands of documented genocide orphans, then what happened to their parents ? he asked. Hearing Mr. Aprahamian s comments I thought that s the angle of our documentary and everything seemed to fit in my mind. I immediately contacted Mr. Kelechian, who has an amazing knowledge of Armenian Genocide documentation and archival material, and we interviewed him in Beirut Lebanon. Consequently we contacted Armenian General Benevolent Union in New York and Armenian Relief Society in Boston for archival material. Both organizations made their archives available to us and the outcome was our 18 minute long Orphans of the Genocide . Q-Why did you decide to expand the short version into a long one? A-The first public screening of the film was on April 24, 2010 at a joint Armenian Genocide Commemoration event in Hollywood, Florida, at the presence of close to 350 people. The response was overwhelming. People approached us and told us how important our work was and how important it was for us to expand it and make it available to the general public. That did it. We immediately widened the scope of our research and contacted experts in the field and embarked on our new mission. Q-In the Orphans of the Genocide , you talk about 150,000 orphans, who were scattered throughout the Middle East and Europe after the Genocide. Have you been able so far to locate the major orphanages and what can you say about their fate in general? A-150,000 is an extremely conservative figure. There are 132,000 documented Armenian genocide orphans and this documentation was recorded and managed by a third party organization called Near East Relief, a United States Congress commissioned humanitarian entity. By some accounts there were as many as 200 orphanages housing Armenian genocide orphans. There are ample studies with detailed information on the daily operations of those orphanages. Most of them had humanitarian intent, such as the orphanages funded and/or operated by NER and other European
countries. Their mission was to gather, feed and house the parentless Armenian children. Here, it s worth mentioning the selfless efforts of Armenian Red Cross (ARS) and AGBU members. There were also other kinds of orphanages, which were nothing but turkification centers operated by Ottoman Turks. We were able to locate and film the remnants of at least one example of each type of orphanage in the Middle East and to study visual and written official documents. On May 15, 1919 a joint declaration signed by the spiritual leaders of the Armenian Evangelical Church, the Armenian Catholic
the Armenian Genocide? A-Orphans are the inevitable byproducts of any genocide. Genocide orphans ought to be of universal interest. By telling the story of these Armenian genocide orphans, in fact we are telling the stories of all genocide orphans and addressing all parties involved. After all, this is a human story and we focus on the human factor of the story and not just the informational aspect of it. Over ninety percent of scholars already agree that the Armenian Genocide is a fact and our job as documentary filmmakers in addition to relaying the facts is to depict the horrific experiences that those orphans lived through: they all had to lose at
A rare photo of the 850 Armenian orphans in the Baquba orphanage, Iraq, in early 1920 s.
Catholicos Sagah II visits AGBU run Kelekian Orphanage in Beirut, Lebanon, AGBU Archives. Church and the Armenian Apostolic Church in Istanbul states that on that day there were 70,000 parentless Armenian children that needed immediate humanitarian care. If we add this number to NER s 132,000, the sum will largely exceed our conservative 150,000. We believe that what we ve discovered so far is only the tip of the iceberg and the actual figures are yet to be determined by experts. Q-In what ways do you believe the film will contribute to raising awareness towards
least one parent if not both. They had to starve. They had to walk hundreds of miles in the scorching heat of the desert. Some had to resort to cannibalism; others had to live with the fear of becoming prey to another. Many were abducted and were used as slaves or abused in harems but all had to lose their identity and dignity one way or another. In our studies, we strive to research and explore to tell the untold stories of these orphans, and to our surprise some of those orphans who experienced the horrors of the genocide turned out to be as close as a friend s
next of kin or the grandparents of a friend s friend. By having the universality of genocide as an approach, we believe that we are raising awareness towards the Armenian Genocide and all genocides. Q-What are some of the difficulties that you ve encountered while working on this project? A- An undertaking such as this one sounds very daunting and ambitious. Daunting because we started off with a very humble budget and that s due to the economic crisis. Ambitious, because we are dealing with a story that took place about a hundred years ago, where photos and written documents were scarce. However, thanks to my team members and friends we are locating and studying crucial information. Once in a while we get emails or phone calls from fellow Armenians who happen to have documents regarding Armenian genocide orphans and they share those documents with us. We also partner with Armenian organizations for additional research and fundraisers. We have visited a few cities in the US and Canada and the Middle East and the support of those communities is highly encouraging. Our major setback is monetary. We have become experts in working with shoestring budgets without compromising quality or content in our work and constantly maintaining high production values. The nomination of the 7 minute version Orphans of the Genocide for an Emmy by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Sun Coast Chapter attests to that. Q-This is not the first time that you ve been nominated for an Emmy. Can you give us an idea about your previous works? A- I ve worked for local, regional and national PBS mainly in English and Spanish programming. I believe I ve been lucky enough to work with great professionals throughout my production and broadcasting career and the outcome has been four Emmy Awards plus a number of other awards, nominations and recognitions, but the most rewarding one so far has been the nomination of the 7 minute version of Orphans of the Genocide for an Emmy. Our previous works include Wall of the Genocide , a Telly Award winner, which is a poetic presentation of the Armenian Historical timeline from the day Noah s Arc landed on Mount Ararat to the day Hrant Dink was murdered. Komitas Hayrig , another Telly award winner, is about the impact of the Genocide on Armenian clergy with a focus on Komitas Vartabed and Khrimian Hayrig. It is worth noting our current Emmy nomination was a hard one to achieve since our budget was extremely low and we were in a category that required six or seven figure budgets. Also, for the first time in the history of this region, a thematically Armenian documentary got nominated for an Emmy. Now we are focused on the completion of our one hour Orphans of the Genocide . I believe with our dynamic team, friends of the Armenoid Team and the support of our generous sponsors and donors, we will bring our project to fruition and make the untold story of the Armenia Genocide orphans available to the public at large.