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