USC Shoah Foundation Receives 400 Digitized Genocide Testimonies From Armenian Film Foundation With Support From The USC Institute Of Armenian Studies

[STK]

[IN] EDU HED FLM

[SU]

TO EDUCATION, FILM, AND NATIONAL EDITORS:

USC Shoah Foundation Receives 400 Digitized Genocide Testimonies From

Armenian Film Foundation With Support From The USC Institute Of

Armenian Studies

LOS ANGELES, April 28, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Armenian

Film Foundation presented a collection of 400 testimonies from

survivors and witnesses of the Armenian genocide to USC Shoah

Foundation - The Institute for History and Visual Education on April

21, 2014. The testimonies will be integrated into the Institute's

Visual History Archive (VHA) with the support of funding from the

Armenian Film Foundation, the USC Shoah Foundation as well as the USC

Institute of Armenian Studies; whose ongoing supporters presented the

final $405,000 gift on April 10 that will allow the videos to be fully

accessible to VHA users.

The 400 testimonies represent the largest collection of filmed

interviews of the first genocide of the twentieth century. The

testimonies were taken in 10 countries, in 10 languages, with

survivors and witnesses who were between the ages of eight and 29 at

the time of the genocide, which killed an estimated 1.5 million people

in Turkey from 1915-1923. USC Shoah Foundation will begin indexing

each interview so they can begin to be integrated into the Visual

History Archive by April 24, 2015, the centennial of the historic

event.

When integrated into the Visual History Archive, the Armenian

testimonies will join the archive's existing Holocaust, Rwandan Tutsi

Genocide and Nanjing Massacre collections.

Most of the collection was the work of the late Dr. J. Michael

Hagopian, an Armenian genocide survivor who filmed the interviews

between 1972 and 2009. Dr. Hagopian wrote, directed and produced more

than 70 educational and documentary films about the Armenian Genocide

and founded the Armenian Film Foundation, with whom the USC Shoah

Foundation first partnered in 2010 to bring the Armenian testimonies

into the Visual History Archive as well as the Institute's public

access website and IWitness educational program that will bring the

Armenian testimonies into classrooms around the world.

The first phase of the project undertaken by the Armenian Film

Foundation involved transferring the interviews that were originally

taken in 16mm film to preservation-quality digital files (motion JPEG

2000).

The current phase of the project is to digitally preserve in

perpetuity these files, create broadcast-quality and internet-quality

versions of each interview, subtitle non-English language testimonies

and begin integrating and indexing each interview into the Visual

History Archive.

Carla Garapedian of the Armenian Film Foundation said she was happy

the testimonies have found a home that will ensure their preservation.

"There aren't many people left who can talk about those days of a

hundred years ago, but today we help ensure that those who shared

their stories will always have an opportunity to be heard," she said.

USC Shoah Foundation Executive Director Stephen D. Smith said that

survivors who gave testimony about the Armenian Genocide add

invaluable insight into the horrors of mass killing.

"This isn't only about those who gave testimony," he said. "It's about

all those who did not survive and who could not tell their own story.

We care about this history. We, as a community, are doing everything

we can to ensure this history is maintained."

At the April 10 event, the USC Institute of Armenian Studies presented

a final donation in their ongoing support of the project's funding to

Steve Kay, dean of the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and

Sciences, which houses USC Shoah Foundation and the Institute of

Armenian Studies.

"This is an invaluable gift that will offer windows into the lives of

witnesses and survivors-an unparalleled tool for students, scholars

and members of the community," Kay said. "We are extremely grateful

for the generosity of so many members of the Armenian community who

have made this important project come to fruition."

Charles Ghalian, the event's co-host and chairman of the Institute of

Armenian Studies Leadership Council, said he was thrilled by the

community's outpouring of support.

"On behalf of the entire Leadership Council and grand benefactors Mr.

and Mrs. Gerald and Patricia Turpanjian, I am excited that the stories

of so many of our parents and grandparents will be held indelibly in

the Visual History Archive," he said. "We express our thanks to the

many philanthropists in the Southern California Armenian community who

donated to this important cause. We look forward to honoring this

achievement and others at the Institute of Armenian Studies' 10th

anniversary at our upcoming event on September 28 in Los Angeles."

Contact: Anne Marie Stein / Josh Grossberg USC Shoah Foundation

213-740-6036 amstein@usc.edu / josh.grossberg@usc.edu

SOURCE USC Shoah Foundation

-0- 04/28/2014

CO: USC Shoah Foundation

ST: Armenia California

IN: EDU HED FLM

PRN

-- DC12922 --

0000 04/28/2014 15:48:00 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com

Copyright © The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Related topics