In 2007, an Ecumenical Jury attended the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Yerevan for the first time, with the presidents of INTERFILM and SIGNIS, Hans Hodel and Peter Malone, as international members, and Father Gevork Saroyan, seminary lecturer (and later Bishop) of the Armenian Church, as local member.
Awards of the Ecumenical jury
1994. Film journalist Vardan Hovahannisyan spends five days filming resistance fighters on the Azerbaijan border, sharing their harsh conditions and dangers,
2005. He tracks down and interviews survivors, discovering their consequent traumas (prison, divorce, madness) inter cutting them with the war footage: A vivid Armenian picture of and comment on all wars.
Screamers are rock concert fans. Screamers is also code for social protesters. Journalist Carla Garapedian follows rock band “System of a Down” through Europe. Descended from survivors of the 1915 Armenian genocide. They are articulate in their message lyrics and their personal, historical and political views.
While Armenia is central, there is focus on other 20th century genocides and interviews with presidents, authors and survivors. Consciousness-raising, conscience-prodding on human rights, politics, economics, coverups and silence.
