Washington Post, DC
Jan 20 2007
Voicing Their Outrage
System of a Down Has Plenty to Howl About in Genocide-Awareness Film
By Chris Richards
Special to The Washington Post
Sunday, January 21, 2007; Page N01
Anyone familiar with Serj Tankian’s larynx knows the System of a Down
singer can rock-and-roar with the best of them. He’s a screamer.
Carla Garapedian is a screamer, too, but she doesn’t front a nu-metal
band. She’s a former BBC World anchor and the director of
"Screamers," a new documentary about System of a Down’s efforts to
promote genocide awareness. A "screamer" is someone who can "actually
process what a genocide is without defense, without guile," Pulitzer
Prize-winning author Samantha Power says at the beginning of the
film. "And when you do that . . . there’s no other alternative but to
go up to people and to scream."
Photo
Serj Tankian and his Armenian American band mates have personal ties
to "Screamers’ " topic. (By Sarah L. Voisin — The Washington Post)
The film’s release comes at a time when celebrities such as George
Clooney, Don Cheadle and the activist-hydra known as Brangelina are
preaching genocide awareness. But where Hollywood types aim to save
the world by putting their pretty faces before the cameras, System of
a Down confronts the issue with some of the most abrasive rock ever
to hit the airwaves.
After a decade together, they’ve sold more than 16 million albums
that favor throat-shredding vocals, schizophrenic guitar riffs and
general rhythmic anarchy. Their activism is much more focused: Their
concerts play host to grass-roots political organizations including
Axis of Justice, a nonprofit that Tankian founded with former Rage
Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
Garapedian, in Washington to promote the film’s opening Friday,
concurs with the band’s approach. "We’ve all got to stand up and
scream and tell our politicians we’ve got to do something about this
now."
She’s referring to the estimated 450,000 dead in Darfur, Sudan, which
her film depicts as the latest in a chain of atrocities dating back
to the Armenian genocide almost 100 years ago. A history refresher:
Between 1915 and 1917, Ottoman Turks systematically took the lives of
1.5 million Armenians. Turns out the grandparents of the four
musicians in System of a Down were among the survivors of this
tragedy. Turkey and the United States still do not recognize the
events as genocide.
"It was important for my grandfather and to all those that survived
the Armenian genocide to be remembered correctly," Tankian, 39, says
of his band’s activism in an e-mail from his vacation in New Zealand.
"I didn’t want their sacrifice to be further victimized by
geo-political expediency."
Like the band members, Garapedian, 45, is an Armenian American raised
in Los Angeles. She attended the London School of Economics and
Political Science, pursued a career in journalism with stops at the
BBC and NBC, and directed documentaries, including her 2002 film
about women in Afghanistan, "Lifting the Veil."
And while her work has always gravitated toward social injustice,
"Screamers" hits much closer to home. "I never thought, though, that
I would make a film like this," she says. "It seemed to me like it
was too personal. And as a journalist, one tries to be objective in
the best sense of the word."
Garapedian hopes the band’s abrasive touch will prick viewers’ ears.
"We’ve lost our connection to the debate about genocide, and that
music brings out the emotion and allows you to access it," says the
director, who speaks with the eloquence of a television anchor and
the passion of a campus activist.
She first approached the band in 2004, and followed them on tour last
summer. "They didn’t want it to be a concert documentary film. They
wanted the film I envisaged, which was a music-politics film where we
use the energy and passion of the music to tell the story of genocide
in the last century."
The result is seriocomic. System of a Down bassist Shavo Odadjian is
playing tour bus pranks one minute and talking about the
extermination of his bloodline the next.
"I did that purposefully because that’s who they are," Garapedian
says of the scene. "For me, it’s important to show humor and joy
because we are celebrating the fact that we’ve survived."
Ironically, there was one thing about the band Garapedian couldn’t
abide: their screaming.
"I grew up with the Beatles and Elton John," she explains. "I
thought, ‘Oh my God, what am I going to do?’ I have this mega-popular
rock band and they’re all grandchildren of survivors, just like me. I
have a way to tell the story . . . and now I’m listening to the music
and I can’t listen to it."
But after recognizing the political bent of some of the band’s
lyrics, Garapedian realized that she had found the perfect score for
her film.
"How could I use Coldplay or something that was easier on the ear
when you’re talking about genocide? You need the rage and the anger."
Much like the band’s music, the film makes some manic jumps —
heartbreaking testimony from Tankian’s grandfather cuts to blaring
concert footage, to carnage in Rwanda, to a House International
Relations Committee debate in Congress.
In one scene, Tankian and System of a Down drummer John Dolmayan
confront then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert in the Capitol’s rotunda
regarding a bill that would force the United States to recognize the
Armenian genocide. (The bill may come to the House in the coming
weeks, and while current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office says she
endorses the bill, there’s no word on whether she’ll introduce it.)
"Of course I was nervous," Tankian recalls in the e-mail. "Here was
the 3rd most powerful person in the country who can call the shots
about my government officially recognizing this historical tragedy
once and for all. . . In my heart I knew Dennis wouldn’t do the right
thing, but I wanted to inspire him to do so anyway. I may have
failed, but hope that the story will inspire Nancy Pelosi, or other
leaders in Congress not to take the same route."
Garapedian hopes this film has an influence on Congress, but she’s
also aiming to win the hearts of American youth. She describes her
audience as "younger people, but not exclusively. . . . You’re
sending a message to Washington: The kids in America are going to see
a film about genocide."