Events

November Public Program

Memories of Marash: The Legacy of a Lost Armenian Community
A documentary film by Roger Hagopian

Sunday, November 22, 2015
2:00 PM
Watertown Savings Bank Meeting Room
Watertown Free Public Library
123 Main Street
Watertown, MA 02472

This 68 minute documentary film was originally created in 2002 and is presented on the 100th year commemoration of the Armenian Genocide.  Producer Roger Hagopian remastered the film in 2015 to widescreen format with high resolution photography, hundreds of new high resolution images and animated maps.  The film traces the ancient history fo the city of Marash, Turkey, from its Hittite, Roman and Crusades periods, through a series of massacres from the late 1800s to the final expulsion and genocide of the Armenians by Ottoman Turkey between 1915 and 1923.  "I wrote and edited this film with the initial desire to tell my family story within the context of history, " Hagopian said.  "In the process of my research, the theme of the story shifted from the plight of my grandmother and uncle to the tale of a vibrant way of life that had once existed in Marash and is now forever a memory."

A history lover since his youth, Roger is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts Boston, where he received his degree in music.  His films include:  Journey Along the Middlesex Canal (1996), Journey of an Armenian Family (1999), Victory at Van (2006), Our Boys, Armenian-American World War II Veterans (2006), Memory Fragments of the Armenian Genocide (2007), Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber (2009), The Canal that Bisected Boston (2011) and A Company of the Committed: The Armenian Memorial Church of Watertown (2012). Hagopian has presented his films at high schools, universities, libraries, community centers and private homes. "For me, video is a way of telling history that is educational, multidimensional, and compelling."

This program is free and open to the public.
For more information, call Joyce at 781-899-7239.