Armenian National Committee of Eastern Massachusetts
47 Nichols Avenue
Watertown Massachusetts 02472
617-926-1918 – ancem@hotmail.com
PRESS RELEASE: January 11, 2007
For more information contact: 617-926-1918
Greater Boston Community Welcomes Genocide Documentary `Screamers’
WATERTOWN – More than 75 community members gathered at the Arsenal Center for
the Arts Monday, January 8, to hear director Carla Garapedian discuss her
new film, Screamers, the gripping documentary about the multi-platinum,
Grammy-award winning band System Of A Down’s campaign to end the cycle of
genocide.
The event, organized by Maya Releasing and the Armenian National Committee,
featured a video presentation of excerpts from the film and presented the
community with the opportunity to meet and talk with Garapedian. The
gathering also was aimed to garner community support for the film’s release.
"Screamers is about exposing the denial of all genocide, Armenia, the
Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Rwanda, the Iraqi Kurds and the current
horror in Darfur," said Garapedian. "It is about making sure the same
critical message George Clooney and Don Cheadle are ‘screaming’ about is
heard, that these atrocities ‘never happen again.’ And I believe, it is this
generation, the ‘screamers,’ who will make sure all genocide is recognized
and ends, because ‘screamers’ will no longer tolerate or accept previous
generations of politicians and humanitarians who have so miserably failed
them."
Garapedian explained that she got the term Screamers from Harvard Professor
Samantha Power, the virtual narrator in the film, who in her Pulitzer
Prize-winning book, A Problem From Hell: America in the Age of Genocide,
argues that in each case of genocide, whether it is the Armenian genocide or
the genocide on in Darfur, Sudan, now, there are always individuals who
raise the alarm and say this is going on and we have to do something about
it. Powers calls those people screamers.
Garabedian, who earned her Ph.D. in international relations at the
prestigious London School of Economics and is the only American even to
anchor the BBC World News, also discussed the power of highlighting the
Screaming of Grammy award winning System of a Down.
Garapedian also attentively listened to comments and suggestions from the
audience regarding how the community can play a role in advancing the film’s
message and rally crowds to fill theaters when the film debuts in Boston.
Earlier, in her welcoming remarks, ANC’s Sharistan Melkonian said any one
interested in advancing human rights and the prevention of genocide must see
the film.
Kevin Benson, the president of Maya Releasing, the company distributing the
film nationwide, outlined the plans his company has to promote and release
the film nationally and delineated the strategy, by which the film would be
distributed.
Maya’s community outreach director Ara Khachatourian urged the participants
of the event to become `ambassadors’ of the film and to ensure that their
personal and professional circles are aware that such an important
documentary will be playing in a theater `near you!’
Also present during the evening was artist Donna Eichholz who displayed a
commemorative glass art pendant she designed exclusively for Screamers.. The
pendant can be viewed and purchased in Boston exclusively at Adamas Jewelers
in Newton.
Screamers debuted at the American Film Institute Film Festival on November 2
and won the coveted AFI Audience Award. On hand for the opening were
Garapedian, "System Of A Down" band members Serj Tankian, John Dolmayan and
Shavo Odadjian, producers Pete McAlevey and Tim Swain, sponsor Raffy
Manoukian of the Raffy Manoukian Charity and a host of genocide recognition
and prevention activists from the ANCA, Save Darfur, and other groups.
Screamers is a production of MG2 productions in association with BBC
Television and The Raffi Manoukian Charity. Garapedian, a veteran reporter
who has made a career of covering the most difficult stories, from Chechenya
to repression in Afghanistan, follows the European tour of System Of A Down
and their ongoing efforts, through music and activism, to raise awareness
about denial of all genocide, tracing the band members’ own personal journey
of their grandparents surviving the Armenian Genocide and its legacy of a
century of atrocities. The film, distributed by Maya Entertainment, is
currently playing in the Los Angeles area and will have a special Capitol
Hill screening on January 17 at the Library of Congress,
The film opens in Boston on January 26. For more information on the film and
film locations, visit the officials Screamers web site at
Screamersmovie.com.