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J. Michael HagopianAmerican director of Armenian descent.
Date of Birth: 20.10.1913
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Content:
Early Life
Arsham Amirian was an Armenian-American filmmaker born in El-Aziz, Ottoman Empire (Armenian name: Kharberd) to a surgeon. In 1915, when Amirian was a year and a half old, his family was ordered to be deported. According to Amirian, they faced a dilemma: take their son with them to certain death or leave him in Kharberd to certain death. Amirian's father hid him in a dry well, hoping his son would somehow survive. The deportation order for his family was eventually canceled, as the Turkish authorities needed a doctor—Amirian's father.
Education and Career
Amirian earned a doctorate in international relations from Harvard University and taught at several universities in the United States and abroad. Noting the lack of educational films while teaching, he decided to pursue filmmaking. Establishing his own film company, Amirian created a series of educational films for colleges and television about the peoples and cultures of India, Nigeria, the Middle East, and Native Americans. Notable among them were "Jerusalem – Center of Many Worlds" and "Asian Earth," which received numerous awards at film festivals. He was the first to film the Ganges River from source to sea in color. The educational short film "Asian Earth" received a Golden Reel Award and top prizes at film festivals in Boston, Columbus, and Stanford.
Armenian Genocide Films
Beginning in 1965, Amirian produced a series of films about the Armenian Genocide, the last of which he released in 2008. He was twice nominated for Emmy Awards for his film "The Forgotten Genocide." He also created "Where Are My People?", "Historic Armenia," and "The River Ran Red."
