WORCESTER, Mass. (A.W.)—The fourth annual Worcester Armenian Film Festival will take place over three days in three separate locations: the Sprinkler Factory on Harlow St in Worcester, Blackstone Valley Cinema 14 in Millbury, and Worcester State University (where the film festival has historically taken place, in the Ghosh Auditorium). This year’s festival will include many films by various Armenian filmmakers/artists, from award winning to students to up and coming.
The fourth annual Worcester Armenian Film Festival will take place April 19, 20, and 22
The festival will begin on the evening of April 19 at the Sprinkler Factory with a program of short works by filmmakers Talin Avakian, Anais DerSimonian, Hannah Besser, Emily Hagopian, Avo John Kambourian, Anna Maria Mouradian, and Eric Nazarian. The works will vary from documentaries about women in post-Soviet Armenia to fictional narratives about ballet dancers and animations about the crisis in Syria.
Eric Nazarian directing Serra Yilmaz on the set of ‘Bolis’ in Istanbul
On April 20, Women of 1915, by award winning filmmaker Bared Maronian will be featured. This film combines facts and emotion to honor brave women of the Armenian Genocide, many of whom lost their lives, survived to create new lives, or were forced into lives that were not their own. It will play at Blackstone Valley Cinema 14 in Millbury, Mass. at 6:30 p.m. Tickets will be available for purchase for $15 at the door.
On April 20, Women of 1915, by award winning filmmaker Bared Maronian will be featured.
The last day of the festival, April 22, will feature the film, Vankin Cocuklari (Children of Vank) by Nezahat Gündoğan at Worcester State University, followed by a discussion facilitated by George Aghjayan and Henry Theriault. The documentary, centered on Dersim Halvori Surp Garabed Vank (St. Garabed Monastery) and its last monk, conveys the courageous and bitter testimony of the children and grandchildren of Keşish. This screening is free and open to the public.
A still from ‘Children of Vank’
The festival is being cosponsored by the Armenian National Committee (ANC) of Central Massachusetts, the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF) Worcester Aram gomideutiun, 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.
For more information, visit the festival’s official Facebook page.