One more entry about the weather? OK... it's a lovely day here in downtown Montreal. The high today was 5 with a minimum low of -3 tonight. Clear skies to be covered by clouds with a possibility of showers.
Now that the weather is out of the way, I'd like to draw your attention on an interesting situation that is starting to develop between Canadian film production company, Hollywood and Turkey. As some of you may know, the Canadian-Armenian film maker, Atom Egoyan has completed his film about an Armenian family living through the genocide. By the way, one of the main characters is Chales Aznavour (no need for introductions there). The interesting development is that Turkey is preparing a law suit against Atom's company and Hollywood's Miramax Production that is the distributor of this film. They are trying to ban the film from showing before it is actually released next fall. They say that they already know that the content will have hate propaganda against Turkey.
I am very fascinated by this denialist machine that always seems to have enough funding and power to persuade communities that the genocide never took place. This same machine was successful in banning the export of the film Mayrig, as many of you may have heard about. This film was done by Henri Verneuil (French -Armenian film maker) in the late 80's. Although Montreal has a large french market, the film never made it here and it was close to impossible trying to get an original video copy. The main actors were Claudia Cardinal and Omar Sharif, 2 very big names in the film industry. I am hoping that Canada will by-pass all the Turkish opposition and will allow this film to be shown as expected. If not, I think the Armenian community will do something about it... will they?
I have started becoming very sceptical about the Hye Tad office in Canada. They are not modernising their approach and are still practicing the same strategy since the early nineties. For instance, do you still hold a passive demonstration in front of the Turkish Embassy and demand all sorts of stuff? "we want our lands! Turkey out of Armenia! we demand Justice! We demand our lands....." and on and on! Do you still have local AYF chapters reading Armenian poems and ARF leaders giving long winded speaches that fall on deaf ears? Well, that's what happens every April 24 in Ottawa (that's the capital city for those who don't know... and God know there rae many of you! :o)
Inch vor eh! I think I am dragging this for now... I will reorganise my thoughts and come back with this issue on another log.
As for the other issue, that of the film called Ararat, I will keep you posted with the developments.
BtW, where can I get a copy of the GOR CD, I see the ad on the site, Raffi talks about it, even John Hues mentioned it to me during his visit to Montreal... sounds like a real winner
Yalla, ciao
PS: Juan, I am also in the Montreal dance group. We went from Folk to classic (Aram Kachaturian) to modern Armenian (Ara Gevorkian and T'hol). Our last performance was in September. Guess what th etheme was... 1700 anniversary of the church... very modern show where King Drtad almost rapes the virgin Kayaneh... There is a video if you are interested!
Now that the weather is out of the way, I'd like to draw your attention on an interesting situation that is starting to develop between Canadian film production company, Hollywood and Turkey. As some of you may know, the Canadian-Armenian film maker, Atom Egoyan has completed his film about an Armenian family living through the genocide. By the way, one of the main characters is Chales Aznavour (no need for introductions there). The interesting development is that Turkey is preparing a law suit against Atom's company and Hollywood's Miramax Production that is the distributor of this film. They are trying to ban the film from showing before it is actually released next fall. They say that they already know that the content will have hate propaganda against Turkey.
I am very fascinated by this denialist machine that always seems to have enough funding and power to persuade communities that the genocide never took place. This same machine was successful in banning the export of the film Mayrig, as many of you may have heard about. This film was done by Henri Verneuil (French -Armenian film maker) in the late 80's. Although Montreal has a large french market, the film never made it here and it was close to impossible trying to get an original video copy. The main actors were Claudia Cardinal and Omar Sharif, 2 very big names in the film industry. I am hoping that Canada will by-pass all the Turkish opposition and will allow this film to be shown as expected. If not, I think the Armenian community will do something about it... will they?
I have started becoming very sceptical about the Hye Tad office in Canada. They are not modernising their approach and are still practicing the same strategy since the early nineties. For instance, do you still hold a passive demonstration in front of the Turkish Embassy and demand all sorts of stuff? "we want our lands! Turkey out of Armenia! we demand Justice! We demand our lands....." and on and on! Do you still have local AYF chapters reading Armenian poems and ARF leaders giving long winded speaches that fall on deaf ears? Well, that's what happens every April 24 in Ottawa (that's the capital city for those who don't know... and God know there rae many of you! :o)
Inch vor eh! I think I am dragging this for now... I will reorganise my thoughts and come back with this issue on another log.
As for the other issue, that of the film called Ararat, I will keep you posted with the developments.
BtW, where can I get a copy of the GOR CD, I see the ad on the site, Raffi talks about it, even John Hues mentioned it to me during his visit to Montreal... sounds like a real winner
Yalla, ciao
PS: Juan, I am also in the Montreal dance group. We went from Folk to classic (Aram Kachaturian) to modern Armenian (Ara Gevorkian and T'hol). Our last performance was in September. Guess what th etheme was... 1700 anniversary of the church... very modern show where King Drtad almost rapes the virgin Kayaneh... There is a video if you are interested!
posted by Raffi N at 2:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home