Worcester Armenian Film Festival to Take Place April 2

WORCESTER, Mass.—The third annual Worcester Armenian Film Festival will take place on Sat., April 2, at Worcester State University, hosted by the local “Aram” Gomideh of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF).

The festival will begin with a short film by Talin Avakian titled “Two Tales of a City.” This is the third year a film by Avakian, a Worcester native, will be shown at the festival. Each film has touched on different journeys in Western Armenia. Avakian’s latest film is focused on the city of Diyarbakir.

Filmmaker Eric Nazarian, director of the upcoming film adaptation of Chris Bohjalian’s bestselling novel The Sandcastle Girls, will discuss the history of Armenian cinema to the present time, and the landmark masterpieces and evolution of Soviet cinema. He will then present three personal narrative films for discussion.

Nazarian will present “I Hate Dogs” by Suzanne Khardalian, a film about one of the last survivors of the Armenian Genocide residing in France. In addition, he will show “The Last Tightrope Dancer” by Inna Sahakyan and Arman Yeritsyan. The film tells the story of Zhora, 78 years old, and Knyaz, 77 years old, who were once the most celebrated tightrope dancers in Armenia. Finally, Armen Khachatryan’s “RETURN or WE EXIST 2” follows the lives of members of an Armenian family from the Sasun region, and their continued ties to the village of their birth.

Admission to the film festival is free and open to the public. The film festival will be held from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Worcester State University’s Ghosh Auditorium.

The festival is being cosponsored by the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Central Massachusetts, the Worcester “Knar” Chapter of the Armenian Relief Society (ARS), Worcester “Aram” Chapter of the Armenian Youth Federation (AYF), the Worcester State University Departments of Communication, Earth Environment and Physics, Health Sciences, History and Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, Sociology, Urban Studies, and Visual and Performing Arts, as well as the Center for the Study of Human Rights, the Honors Program, and the Global Studies Program.

Source: Armenian Weekly Mid-West