Orphans of the Genocide

Orphans of the Genocide is an award-winning documentary on the human toll of one of the last century’s great catastrophes, the Armenian Genocide. The documentary, seen at several film festivals around the U.S., will be screened in Racine as part of a series of events commemorating the centenary of massacres that took the lives of nearly 1.5 million Armenians. Shepherd express reports.

Directed by Bared Maronian, Orphans of the Genocide focuses on the children who survived the concerted campaign by Ottoman Turkey to eradicate the empire’s minority groups. Portions of the film were shot at an orphanage in Beirut where the children were “Turkified,” forced to surrender their identities and heritage. But there were some happy endings. Maronian interviewed a 105-year old man, Almas Boghossian-Avakian, “who survived the Genocide against all odds, made it to the States and lived the American Dream,” Maronian says.

The filmmaker located archival footage in widely scattered places, institutions and private collections in Denmark, Germany, Armenia, Lebanon, the U.S. and Canada. Maronian’s team also interviewed scholars, historians and journalists, including The Independent’s Middle East correspondent Robert Fisk and Taner Akcham, a Turkish historian who has broken with academics from Turkey who continue to deny or minimize the Genocide.

Orphans of the Genocide will be screened 7 p.m., March 19, at the SC Johnson Golden Rondelle Theater, 1525 Howe St., Racine. Admission is free.