Interview with Carla Garapedian

                                       by Vahram Emiyan

                                                                                                                      25/07/07

Carla Garapedian is the only American ever to anchor the famous BBC World News. She earned her Ph.D. in international relations at the prestigious London School of Economics. She has worked as a correspondent for NBC and later as a director and anchor for the BBC.

Carla Garapedian’s film “Beneath the Veil” about the women in Afghanistan, which was produced by Hardcash Productions, has won the Emmy award. Whereas in 2005 her film “Iran Undercover”, about the student movement in Iran, won the prestigious Edward R. Murrow award, as part of the PBS Frontline World series.

The following is the transcription of the interview I had with Carla Garapedian during her visit to Beirut for the projection of her film “Screamers”.

■ Vahram Emiyan:- When did you decide to make the movie “Screamers” and why?

♦ Carla Garapedian:- In April 2004, I went to a “System of a Dawn” concert where I was asked to sit outside and hand out pamphlets. The band wants to educate its fans on many genocides not just on the Armenian Genocide, but Darfur, Rwanda, the Holocaust and Cambodia. It’s very interesting for a rock band to want human rights groups to be at their concert. I was with the Armenian Film Foundation which makes documentaries on the Armenian Genocide and other Armenian issues, and the filmmaker there is Michael Hagopian. Most of the fans that came to our table were not Armenians, and they told us that they already knew about the Armenian Genocide and this surprised me. Although we as Armenians know about the Armenian Genocide, most people in America are not thought about it in school books, in history books and the government doesn’t talk about it. So, for non Armenian young people to know about the Armenian Genocide was surprising. And that started the idea of doing a film with the band “System of a Dawn”. A film that is not just about the Armenian Genocide, but all genocides. In August 2004 I met with Serj Tankian(from the band) and we started talking about doing the movie. He thought a film that looked at the denial of genocide, a political film rather than a history film would be interesting and was something that the group would like to be involved in. Between August and February 2005 I made another film. I had the opportunity to go to Africa and make a film about an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea. Actually there were six Armenians, who were involved and arrested in that, but it was mainly South African mercenaries who had tried to take over that oil rich country and they had failed. The movie was about this attempt and why it had failed. So, I was having a good time, but the whole time I was thinking about the Armenian movie. From February to March 2005 I started speak to the BBC and to Raffi Manoukian who lives in London and invests in documentaries and we decided that this film would include “System of a Dawn” and the thesis of Samantha Powers, who wrote the Pulitzer prize winning book “A Problem from Hell”. The BBC was very interested in this book. It was a new way to talk about Genocide, starting from the Armenian Genocide and going through all the major genocides. They also thought that since Turkey wants to join the EU, the issue of the Armenian Genocide was becoming a part of the news discussion. When we finally got the money from both the BBC and Raffi Manoukian we started filming in April, May and June of 2005.

Then in July and August 2005 I went to Turkey and interviewed Hrant Dink. I filmed in the village where Serj Tankian’s grandfather came from, which is the village Efces near Kaisari and I interviewed other Turkish dissidents. I started to edit the film in October 2005 and finished the production of the film in July 2006. The movie premiered in November 2006, for the AFI (American Film Institute) festival in Los Angeles and Hrant Dink was present which made me very happy. He met with Serj Tankian and the members of the band. In less than two months later he was dead.

■ V. Emiyan:- Why did you call it “Screamers”?

♦ C. Garapedian:- We called it “Screamers” because in Samantha Powers’ book she describes a screamer as being somebody or a group of people who while a genocide is occurring raise their hand and scream and say “we must stop this”. She says that in every genocide there have been screamers.  In the Armenian Genocide we know about the American ambassador Henry Morgenthau , missionaries and diplomats from all over the world who were screaming. In the Holocaust she argues there were also “screamers”, how people during the Holocaust were saying what was going on. How the British government and the Americans knew about it. But is was a combination of not quite believing it, but also maybe an element of anti-Semitism and not caring enough to do something about it. Maybe they couldn’t save the 6 million – actually it was 11 million in total – but maybe they could have saved a couple of hundred thousand by bombing railway lines that were used for taking people. So, there were choices in that period. And she argues there were people “screaming” also in Cambodia and Rwanda. So screamers is a Samantha Powers term. But obviously “System of a Dawn” screams, so it has two meanings.  

■ V. Emiyan:- Since it premiered in the US your movie has been shown in many countries. What kind of reaction did you get?

♦ C. Garapedian:- I think the reaction has been what I wanted it to be, that people look at the problem of genocide as one problem. So, the Armenian Genocide is seen in the context of other genocides, and that’s what I wanted. Obviously I wanted for people to learn about the Armenian Genocide, but also to understand that what happened during the Armenian Genocide was repeated. And the reaction has been that they understand that message. So when we talk about Darfur they see the connection. I made the film for young people, but the older people are also reacting. At first they hear the music which is hard to listen to, especially the swear words in there, and I had to keep those words, I couldn’t take them out. But then as the movie goes on they become involved in the story. So the reaction has been positive whether from young people or old. And we also had interest politically from politicians to show the movie in parliaments and in Congress and I didn’t expect that. It’s good because it means that they see the movie as a tool to discuss genocide prevention and to talk about the Darfur genocide and to explain to the people that the Darfur genocide has been going on for a long time, and we have the responsibility to do something to stop it. It’s not just about victims, feeling sorry for them and pity. It’s about responsibility for us standing by and watching this. For us to decide what can we do to stop this?

■ V. Emiyan:- And what about the Turkish reaction?

♦ C. Garapedian:- When the film came out in December the distributors of the movie gave a DVD of the movie to the Turkish consul of Los Angeles, which I thought was a very generous thing to do. I myself didn’t think it was necessarily necessary, but the distributors wanted to give them the opportunity to respond. I didn’t hear anything. On the internet there have been a lot of rumors, for instance I heard that they were saying that in the movie we burned the Turkish flag. We do not do that. But officially the Turkish government did not give us a response. The only thing that happened was that two weeks later the Turkish foreign minister Gul made a statement saying that the Turks must redouble their efforts to counter the lies that are coming out of the Armenian Diaspora. So, I thought, the only so called lies coming out of the Diaspora was “Screamers”, maybe he means us.

■ V. Emiyan:- On of the sequences of the film is called “The G word dance”. What can you say about that sequence? And why is it called a dance?    

♦ C. Garapedian:-  I think words have power and they also have a legal consequence. After signing the Genocide Convention in 1988, if the US called an action “a genocide”  then it would be responsible in punishing the perpetrator. So America would be responsible for punishing Turkey if it used the word genocide. So the word has a political impact and a legal consequence. All through history we have seen the US and other countries in Western Europe “dance around the word”, call it other things for example tragedy.  The US President Bush has called it forced exile and murder. So, what is that? A humanitarian disaster I’ve heard that word too. There are all sorts of words. In 1914 the British government used the term “crime against humanity”. But the word genocide is a loaded word. It has an emotional impact. If you use the word genocide it is the most extreme thing you can say apart from the word Holocaust, and that word has only been used to describe the Jewish Holocaust. It has not been used to describe other genocides. So, genocide at many levels is emotive and requires the US to do something. So, I wanted to show in the movie how politicians “dance around the word”, how they try to maneuver and not say it. I wanted the public to see it for themselves. We have this one man in the movie who stutters. He’s desperately trying not to say the wrong word.  When I first saw that footage my editor said that we can’t use that. It takes 30 seconds of our movie for him to say that. But I thought it was important. The first time I saw that I was fascinated. Because the State Department official was sweating and he couldn’t get the words out. And that says more to me than anything else what’s behind this. 

■ V. Emiyan:- Over 20 countries have recognized the Armenian Genocide. How do you see this process evolving?

 ♦ C. Garapedian:-  Well, I hope the film has an impact and I hope to see more countries. I believe if we continue to get the message out about the connection between the Armenian Genocide and other genocides we will get more countries to recognize it. And I hope that the pressure to do something about Darfur will help the Armenian case. I think the pressure is on the US. Last night I met with a group of Armenians and I asked them how important it was For the Armenian community in Lebanon for America to recognize the Armenian Genocide. Some people said that they thought that it was important. I myself think that if America does it, then it sends a signal to the rest of the world that we have had the courage to stand up to Turkey and say the truth. When I sat in the Congressional debate about this there were many eloquent and fine speeches made by politicians about how important it was, “if we do not recognize the Armenian Genocide who are we as a civilization?” “We must be moral in our foreign policy”. Amazing speeches! I was sitting there and thinking “I didn’t know our politicians could speak like this! So why don’t they follow through”. They understand that this is the right thing to do. They don’t say it dough. One person said that if our alliance with Turkey is so fragile and weak that we can’t tell them to do the right thing on this issue which is about the Ottoman Empire. It’s not about them. If we as Americans can’t speak truthfully to our ally, then what kind of an alliance is it? Somebody else said that that if Germany came around and said to us that there has been a change of government and there were neo-Nazis who came in the German government and said “well, you know the Holocaust, people say that there were 6 million Jews who were killed. Actually, there weren’t that many people. And there is evidence to say that the Jews were actually threatening the government and that the German government had to kill some of these people for its self defense”. What if there is a regime that comes to power in Germany and says that, is the US going to say “They are our allies, Germany is a very important partner in Western Europe, it is a member of NATO and we have to go along with that”? So I know that people know what to do. It’s now just a matter of pressuring the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and making sure that she understands. She supports the Armenian Genocide resolution.  So, the question is will she allow a vote? Will she do it in time this year? And I think if she does it will send a message to Turkey.  It may make things worse in Turkey, but maybe it has to get worse before the recognition happens. We don’t know. Turkey is a whole other story.

■ V. Emiyan:- Is this your first visit to Lebanon? And what do you think of the Armenian Lebanese community?

♦ C. Garapedian:-  It is my first visit to Lebanon and it is a very emotional experience. It’s emotional to come here, because as an Armenian knowing our history and what happened to those trying to get here from Turkey, desperately trying to make it out of Aleppo trying to escape out of the last march to the desert. If you made it to Aleppo and you managed to escape to what is now Lebanon you were lucky.  So, to come here is to know this as an Armenian its historically significant. I think all Armenians should come here.  Also we’ve been seeing the schools, the community centers and last night we went to the Aghpalian Center. That was impressive. The fact that it’s busy and you have so many people, young people and different classes, people playing basketball, backgammon and taking dance classes that our event seemed not so important. That’s a good thing to see. Buses coming full of people, and buses leaving with people. It’s very vibrant. Also this morning we went to the Araxi Boulghourdjian Armenian Relief Center. They have a DVD of their work and we saw the pictures how during last years bombing you had 35 thousand refugees come into Bourj Hamoud. It’s amazing to see how this community dealt with that. I don’t know how you dealt with it. I just think it’s amazing. And the fact that these people came to the Armenian community for help isn’t that an irony?  These people came to little Armenia here in Lebanon, because they felt they were safe. And that was interesting. Obviously I want to come back now. So I’m planning my next trip. I want to go to Aleppo as well. I want to go from Beirut to Aleppo and then to Racca, which I’ve been planning to go to for a while. As a film maker I think it’s important to go to Aleppo.

■ V. Emiyan:- What are your plans for the future ?

♦ C. Garapedian:-  Well, I will continue to show “Screamers” in film festivals and so, I’m going to South Africa on Friday and it will be shown theatrically in Australia in the autumn. Also there are film festivals in Poland, in Hamburg, Germany and possibly in Rome. The film festival in Rome has a special category for genocide films. Every country we go to and every country we show the film in the media and the press ask questions about the Armenian Genocide and all genocides. So, for me it’s an opportunity to talk about the issues. And as long as I can do that, I’ll do that. When the DVD comes out that will be a renewed campaign to talk about the issues. So, it’s going to take me effectively till the end of the year. And in that time I’m also thinking about my next film and I have several ideas. I haven’t committed to any one of them, because it’s hard not to think about “Screamers”. There has been a lot of emotional commitment to making the film. It’s been a hundred and ten percent, all the time for the last 18 months. Since we have started filming in April 2005, I’ve been only thinking and working and sleeping and breathing this film, because for me it’s very important to get it right. When will I have the opportunity again?