July 20, 2006
Press contact

Stefanie Koperniak

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Images of the Armenian Spirit Explores the Rich Cultural History of the
Armenian People

Thursday, August 24 at 8:30pm on WGBH 2
Also airs on Sunday, August 27 at 5:30pm on WGBH 2

New England Native Barbara Ghazarian Visits WGBH to Present This Program

Images of the Armenian Spirit celebrates more than 3,000 years of the
art, culture and survival of the Armenian people. The compelling
one-hour documentary was written, directed, and produced by Muffie
Dunn and Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Goldberg, both of Two Cats
Productions.

Author and speaker Barbara Ghazarian visits the WGBH studio to present
this program, airing on Thursday, August 24 at 8:30pm on WGBH
2. Ghazarian is author of the book Descendants of Noah: Christian
Stories from the Armenian Heart . Her cookbook, Simply Armenian:
Healthy Ethnic Cooking Made Easy, won Honorable Mention in the
Writer’s Digest 12th International Self-Published Book Awards. Today,
she splits her time between Monterey, Californi a, and Newport, Rhode
Island, and is working on a novel also inspired by her ancestry.

Images of the Armenian Spirit transports the viewer to today’s
Republic of Armenia and, through this journey, explores the spirit of
what it means to be Armenian. This is the third PBS special on Armenia
produced by Two Cats Productions and, as in The Armenian Americans and
The Armenians: A Story of Survival, it continues the celeb ration of
this culture’s spirit as well as its legacy of inspiration,
achievement and perseverance.

`The rich visuals we were able to achieve in Images of the Armenian
Spirit highlight the epic accomplishments in Armenian history,
architecture and religion and detail the devastation of the Genocide
of 1915,’ said Goldberg. `As a Christian country wedged between the
Middle East, Russia, and Turkey, Armenia’s story has tremendous
significance in understanding today’s current events.’

The film begins with an overview of Armenian lore, which traces
Armenia’s origin to Mt. Ararat’the heart of Armenia’s spiritual
soul’and to Noah’s Ark. It is punctuated with stories of heroism, such
as the legend of Haig and Pel’Armenia’s David and Goliath; and
enlightened leadership, including that of the great King Dikran, who
successfully protected Armenia from her violent neighbors’the Romans
and Persians. As the first nation to adopt Christianity, Armenia set
herself on a course that significantly differentiated and at times
alienated her from neighbors.

An Armenian Diaspora began in the 11th century and continued through
the 20th. The Armenians who remained in their traditional lands, ruled
by the crumbling Ottoman Empire, suffered a major massacre in the late
1800s. Then, during the first World War came the 1915 Genocide’with
1.5 million Armenians, along with their thriving communities,
annihilated.

Included in this documentary are rarely seen photographs of the
rescue, by the French, of the Armenian residents of Musa Dagh during
the 1915 Genocide, as well as footage shot undercover in Eastern
Turkey showing the devastated areas that were once historic Armenia.

Still, Armenia was not destroyed. And, as the film shows, throughout
the city of Yerevan, and surrounding countryside, are reminders of
Armenia’s ancient heritage and natural beauty: monasteries, churches,
memorials, forests, lakes and mountains’all of which resonate with the
Armenian spirit. This spirit extends beyond Armenia’s borders into the
Diaspora communities, such as Iran, Jerusalem and G eorgia, to name a
few.

Images of the Armenian Spirit, presented with video, film, still
photos, music, and narration is ultimately a celebration of the human
spirit and a people that refused to surrender to history.

About WGBH

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