EGOYAN REVISITS HIS FILM "ARARAT"

Renown film director highlights public lectures at the University of Michigan

 

Ann Arbor, Mich. April 18, 2012. Award winning internationally renown author, producer and film director Atom Egoyan discussed his famous film "Ararat" on March 19, 2012 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, at the invitation of the Armenian Studies Program at that university. Egoyan was the designated 2012 "Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Annual Distinguished Lecturer," on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the release of that epochal film.

 

With fourteen films and related projects to his credit, Atom Egoyan has won numerous internationally recognized awards including five prizes at the Cannes Film Festival, two Academy award nominations, eight Genie Awards as well as major awards at film festivals in Hamburg, Tokyo, Jerusalem, Reykjavik, Las Palmas, Hong Kong, Cairo and Athens. In 2010 Egoyan had a retrospective of his films at the Filmoteca Espagnol in Madrid, following similar events in previous years in Paris and New York. 

 

In this lecture titled "Ararat-Ten years After," Atom Egoyan discussed the genesis of the idea for that work, the challenges he faced when making it, and the various and conflicting responses he received following the release of "Ararat." 

 

Mr. Egoyan's thought provoking lecture, attended by a large and diverse public and webcast live, was followed by an extended period of questions and answers. The session will be made available on the program's website soon, (www.ii.umich.edu/asp/events/video). 

 

The "Dr. Berj H. Haidostian Distinguished Annual Lecture" was established by the family of the late Dr. Berj H. Haidostian, a prominent and devoted physician, in honor of his long relationship with the University of Michigan and the Armenian Studies Program. Recent Haidostian Distinguished Lecturers have included Dr. Gerard Chaliand of Paris, Dr. Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution, Mr. Thomas de Waal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Dr. Vartan Gregorian of the Carnegie Foundation, Armenia's Ambassador to the US Arman Kirakosian, and the US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans. 

 

Mr Egoyan's lecture highlighted a year rich with public lectures, marking the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Alex Manoogian Chair in Modern Armenian History and the Armenian Studies Program itself.  

 

In addition to events related to the 30th anniversary, the fall 2011 schedule included lectures by professors Kevork Bardakjian ("How to Petition for Poetic Grace?: Kostandin Erznkac'i's 'Strange' Vision-poem" ), Ronald Suny ("The New Turkey and the Issue of Genocide:  Armenians in a Progressive Imagination") and Gerard Libaridian ("From Historian to Accidental Diplomat: The Writing of History Before & After Participating in its Making")of the University of Michigan; Professor Azat Yeghiazaryan, Yerevan, ("Charents and Revolution," and Professor Artin Aslanian of Maris College, New York, ("The British Imperial Ethos: Britain & Transcaucasia, 1917-1920"). 

 

The public lectures in the Winter 2012 semester included Dr. Hikmet Hadjy-Zadeh, Baku, ("Azerbaijan: 20 Years of Independence"), and Manoogian Simone Post-doctoral Fellows Dr. Levon Petrosyan ("Gregory of Narek and the Narekian Fathers: The Mystery of Love from the Commentary of Song of Songs to the Book of Lamentations,") and Dr. Arsen Saparov ("Why Autonomy? The Making of Nagorno-Karabakh 1918-1925".

 

Videos of these lectures are available on the ASP website: http://www.ii.umich.edu/asp/events/video.