Dr. J. Michael Hagopian was honored with the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award 2006
Dr. J. Michael Hagopian was honored with the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award at the 9th Annual Arpa International Film Festival in 2006. His acclaimed documentary trilogy, “The Witnesses,” which chronicles the history of persecution of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey and the Armenian Genocide of 1915 to 1923, was screened at the historic Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
A professor of political science and economics turned filmmaker, Dr. Hagopian, 92, dedicated his life to producing educational documentary films. His remarkable career transition was driven by a passion to educate and raise awareness about critical social and historical issues.
The cover of the documentary trilogy “The Wittnesses”
The first part of Dr. Hagopian’s documentary trilogy, “Voices from the Lake”, a documentary film on the Armenian Genocide focusing on the day-to-day tragedy unfolding in Kharpert-Mezreh, one of 4,000 towns and villages of the former Ottoman Empire in 1915, where monumental forces were unleashed by a policy of annihilation.
In 2004, the second part of Dr. Hagopian’s documentary trilogy, “Germany and the Secret Genocide”, which explores how German diplomats ignored the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman government when Germany needed support from Turkey during World War I, won the US International Film & Video Festival.
The 3rd part of Dr. Hagopian’s documentary trilogy, “The River Ran Red”: A Search for Survivors of the Armenian Genocide of 1915 along the Euphrates River, premiered at the Eighth Annual Arpa International Film Festival on October 24, 2008, at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood, California, just four days after Hagopian’s 95th birthday.
