THE SCREAMERS – THE GENOCIDE AND ARMENIAN ROCK STARS
AZG Armenian Daily
08/02/2007
Documentary feature examining why genocides keep occurring — from the
Armenian genocide in 1915, to the Holocaust, Bosnia, Rwanda and now
Darfur — through the eyes and music of the Grammy award-winning rock
band "System of a Down," based in Los Angeles, whose members are all
grandchildren of genocide survivors. As the band tours the world and
touches on the locations and stories of genocide in the last century,
the film follows the personal story of the lead singer’s grandfather, a
96-year old survivor of the Armenian genocide, one of the few remaining
survivors from his village in Turkey. With the arguments of Harvard
Professor Samantha Power, the personal stories of survivors from
Armenia, Rwanda and Darfur, policy critics and whistleblowers – the
"screamers" – the film targets the problem of genocide denial, with
specific reference to the Turkish government’s current campaign to
stop its citizens from discussing the genocide. When the band arrives
back in the United States, they confront the hypocrisy of U.S. foreign
policy in the debate on genocide recognition, with Speaker of the
House, Dennis Hastert, actively blocking a vote in Congress.
Through the band’s efforts to get Dennis to "Do the Right Thing" and
Power’s thesis that America’s interest has always been to stay neutral,
no matter how wide-scale the carnage, the film shows how successive
Presidents and corporate interests have conspired to turn a blind
eye to genocides as they are happening – whether it be Iraqi Kurds
in the 80s, Rwanda in the 90s or Darfur today. After the Holocaust,
we may say ‘never again’ — but we don’t mean it.