Jakob Michael Hagopian (; October 20, 1913 – December 10, 2010) was an

Armenia Armenia, officially the Republic of Armenia, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of West Asia. It is a part of the Caucasus region and is bordered by Turkey to the west, Georgia (country), Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to ...

n-born

America The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

-nominated filmmaker.

Biography

Hagopian was born to an Armenian family on 20 October 1913, in

Kharpert Harpoot () or Kharberd () is an ancient town located in the Elazığ Province of Turkey. It now forms a small district of the city of Elazığ. p. 1. In the late Ottoman period, it fell under the Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet (also known as the Harput ...

, Mamuret-ul-Aziz Vilayet,

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. In summer of 1915, when the Ottoman soldiers rampaged through Kharpert, Michael's mother hid her child in a

mulberry ''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of 19 species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 subordinat ...

bush and prayed that the soldiers would not find him. Both escaped, and moved to

Fresno, California Fresno (; ) is a city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County, California, Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley (California), Central Valley region. It covers a ...

. Hagopian received an undergraduate degree from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, and after receiving a doctorate in

international relations International relations (IR, and also referred to as international studies, international politics, or international affairs) is an academic discipline. In a broader sense, the study of IR, in addition to multilateral relations, concerns al ...

from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, he went into cinema and founded the Atlantis Films Company, which produced over fifty documentary films on ethnic minorities and foreign lands. He won critical acclaim, including two

nominations for his film ''The Forgotten Genocide'', the first full-length feature on the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

. The film encompassed twenty years of research and nearly 400 witness interviews. In 1979, Hagopian founded the non-profit Armenian Film Foundation dedicated to preserving the visual and personal histories of the witnesses to the Armenian Genocide. In 2004 Hagopian's "Germany and the Secret Genocide" documentary became the winner of US International Film & Video Festival. The pre-release version of Hagopian's 58-minute documentary "The River Ran Red" opened the Eighth Annual Arpa International Film Festival on Oct. 24, 2008 at the Egyptian Theatre in

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, four days after Hagopian’s 95th birthday.

Other awards

*Arpa Lifetime Achievement Award. * Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award, 2006. *

Jewish World Watch Jewish World Watch (JWW) is a non-profit humanitarian organization dedicated to helping survivors of genocide and mass atrocities around the world. History Rabbi Harold M. Schulweis and Janice Kamenir-Reznik established Jewish World Watch ( ...

's 'I Witness' Award.Award-Winning Filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian Dies at 97

Asbarez ''Asbarez'' ( "Arena") is an Armenian-American bilingual daily newspaper published in Armenian and English in Los Angeles, California. It was the official newspaper Armenian Revolutionary Federation newspaper for the Western United States un ...

, December 13, 2010

Filmography

*The Witnesses Trilogy **''Part 3'': **''Part 2'': **''Part 1'': * * * (Produced for the Curriculum Development and Supplemental Materials Commission of the State of California.) * * * * *''California Armenians: The First Generation'' *''The Art of Traditional Armenian Cooking'' * *Soviet Boy * *African Girl-Malobi (1960) *Africa is My Home (1960) *

References

External links

Armenian Film Foundation
(Official Website of the organization founded by Hagopian)

on the website of the Armenian Film Foundation *
Hagopian at Armeniapedia

95-year-old Award-Winning Filmmaker Completes 70th Documentary, PRWeb, October 15, 2008

Award-Winning Filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian Dies at 97, Asbarez

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hagopian, J Michael 1913 births 2010 deaths People from Elazığ People from Mamuret-ul-Aziz vilayet Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to the United States Film directors from California Armenian refugees University of California, Berkeley alumni Harvard University alumni American people of Armenian descent Armenian genocide survivors