By Joe Nerssessian
The day I interview Inna Sahakyan, director of Aurora’s Sunrise (2022), a documentary which chronicles the horrors of the Armenian genocide, is, by pure chance, the same day I complete the first draft of a play I’m writing about the very same massacre.
As two Armenians meeting, albeit on Zoom, we are, in the words of our compatriot William Saroyan, creating a ‘New Armenia’. But we are from two very different Armenias.
Inna was born and grew up in the Armenian republic. Her identity firm. Whereas I, with approximately eight million others, grew up in the diaspora – its size a direct consequence of the genocide of 1915.
Our two Armenias – our lives – are only possible, only real, because of the survival of our ancestors. And it is the stories of these ancestors that we’re both drawn to.
Inna approaches these stories with great texture. Aurora’s Sunrise threads a patchwork of animation, archival footage, and interview, as well as clips from a 1919 silent film about the genocide which was once thought lost to history. The result is a compelling and spirited tale of tragedy and loss, featuring first-person testimony of Aurora, captured by the Zoryan Institute’s Oral History Project.
By Joe Nerssessian