Editor’s Note: This press release has been edited to reflect an important update from Zoravik; the documentary will be introduced by the filmmaker herself—Nouritza Matossian—via video link.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.— To commemorate the thirteenth anniversary of the assassination of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007, Zoravik will be presenting a screening of a film about Hrant Dink followed by a discussion of the film and of Dink’s legacy. The event will take place on Sunday, January 19, 2020 at 7:30 pm in Harvard’s Fong Auditorium in Boylston Hall. The event will be free and open to the public.
The evening will feature a screening of the 40-minute long documentary, Heart of Two Nations, Hrant Dink: Conversation with Nouritza Matossian, filmed and produced by biographer, director and human rights activist Nouritza Matossian. Heart of Two Nations features private interview footage collected while Dink faced several charges for “insulting Turkishness,” was prosecuted and sentenced to a suspended six-month imprisonment, and was warned to leave the country after receiving death threats for writing about the abuses and rights of disadvantaged ethnic groups living in Turkey as well as his own Armenian compatriots. Attesting to the uniqueness of this first-person footage collected prior to Dink’s assassination, Amnesty International has described the documentary as a “deeply engaging and moving” film that stands as “a unique record of a remarkable journalist and editor’s life and work.” The film won the Public Prize at Toronto’s Pomegranate Film Festival in 2008 after its release on the first anniversary of Dink’s assassination.
The documentary will be introduced by the filmmaker Nouritza Matossian via video link from London, England. After viewing the award-winning documentary, Dr. Ohannes Kilicdagi, a historian and columnist at Agos, will moderate an interactive, open-mic conversation with audience members about the documentary, the assassination, and Dink’s impact.
Nouritza Matossian is a writer, film-maker, broadcaster and human rights activist. Her biography of composer Iannis Xenakis was made into a BBC documentary and her 1998 book on Arshile Gorky was the inspiration for Atom Egoyan’s award-winning film Ararat.
Dr. Ohannes Kılıçdağı completed his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University. He currently serves as the Coordinator of the Krikor Guerguerian Online Archive Project at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Clark University.
Zoravik (“in solidarity”) is a Boston-based Armenian activist collective that promotes new avenues for political and grassroots organizing and project-based engagement for progressives. Formed in the wake of the Velvet Revolution, the group seeks to mobilize the political, cultural, and social institutions of the diaspora to support and encourage transformative efforts in Armenian communities worldwide. For more information, visit www.facebook.com/zoravik or email zoravik@gmail.com.
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