PulseFLICKS – Cause and Effect

A New Film, System Of A Down Raise consciousness of Armenian Genocide

By Robert Newton

While musicians have always used their celebrity to further causes both selfish and benevolent, the metal band System Of A Down is doing more than just dabbling to expose an injustice closest to their hearts — they’re living the fight. In the new documentary Screamers, the band speaks out about the Armenian Genocide of 1914-18, in which 1.5 million Armenians, according to some estimates, died during forced evacuation and relocation by the Turkish government. Many human rights groups deem this akin to ethnic cleansing.

But why such deep interest in the subject? All four members of the band are descendents of the Armenian Genocide.

In the film, writer-director Carla Garapedian (Lifting The Veil), herself Armenian, traces the history of modern-day genocide ~ and genocide denial ~ from the fertile “Holy Mountains” of Anatolia to the current atrocities in Darfur. Shattering and powerful, the documentary includes interviews with some of the few remaining witnesses and seven songs performed live across Europe by System Of A Down, including the poignant “Holy Mountains,” “P.L.U.C.K.” and the #1 hit “B.Y.O.B.”

“System Of A Down gave me the chance to tell this story,” the well-travelled Garapedian says. “Their music, their passion – and the young people who follow them – have made this film possible. Their music is the music of life, of survival – it is saying, we are here. We remember.”

Garapedian points out how Holocaust survivor and scholar Elie Wiesel says that denial is the last stage of genocide, when the perpetrator seeks to become the victim and make the victim the perpetrator.

“The denial of the Armenian genocide has motivated me in my work for as long as I can remember,” she adds. “It’s not a conscious thing – it’s just there, simmering under every story I’ve done about atrocities governments would like to keep hidden, truths people would seek to deny.”

‘Screamers,’ more information on which can be found at www.ScreamersMovie.com, is scheduled for release in Worcester on February 9th.