Bars Media Films, the newly established Los Angeles branch of Armenia’s largest independent documentary production company, announces its first-ever animated feature — the first-ever animated documentary film made in Armenia — and Armenia’s Official Selection for 95th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film: Aurora’s Sunrise. The film will begin is tour of North American theaters next month.
Directed by Inna Sahakyan (Armenia’s Last Tightrope Dance, Mel), Aurora’s Sunrise premiered in competition at Annecy Festival 2022 and went on to win more than 10 awards, including the Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2022 for Best Animated Film, Movies that Matter 2023 Audience Award and Special Mention Winner, Audience Favorites at IDFA 2022, Audience Awards at Animation is Film 2022 and FIFDH Geneva International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights 2023 for Grand Prix, among others.
The film’s North American release schedule includes openings in New York City at Village East by Angelika and New Plaza Cinema on August 11, in Los Angeles at Laemmle Glendale on August 18 and in Toronto at Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on September 1, with director Inna Sahakyan in-person for Q&As at all three. The film will also roll out in other cities across the U.S. and Canada throughout August and the Fall.
Synopsis: In 1915, as WWI raged on, the Ottoman Empire singled out its entire Armenian population for destruction. Only 14 years old at the time, Aurora Mardiganian’s story was tragically relatable. Forced onto a death march towards the Syrian desert, she lost her entire family before being kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. Four years later, through luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring as herself in the silent epic Auction of Souls, an early Hollywood blockbuster, Aurora became the face of one of the largest and most successful charity campaigns in American history, as one of the first women activists fighting against the injustices of war.
With a blend of vivid animation, interviews with Aurora herself, and 18 minutes of surviving re-discovered footage from her lost silent epic, Aurora’s Sunrise revives a forgotten story of survival, hope and the endurance of the human spirit.
“The Armenian genocide is the enduring pain of my nation,” says Sahakyan. “I was afraid of telling stories that only confirmed Armenians as a nation of victims with no historical agency and nothing but tragedy running through our veins. That is, until I stumbled upon an interview with Aurora Mardiganian while going through archival interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors at the Zoryan Institute. Through her words and expressions, an incredible but ordinary heroism shone: this woman survived a genocide but refused to be a victim. This is the character I wanted to build in Aurora’s Sunrise, resilient, powerful and heartwarming all at once.”
The film was written and directed by Sahakyan, with Gediminas Skyrius as lead illustrator, Ruben Ghazaryan as live-action director & editor, Tigran Arakelyan as art director and music composed by Christine Aufderhaar. Producers are Vardan Hovhannisyan Christian Beetz, Justė Michailinaitė, Kęstutis Drazdauskas and Eric Esrailian.
A co-production between Armenia, Germany and Lithuania, Aurora’s Sunrise is produced by Bars Media Films, Artbox Laisvalaikio Klubas and Gebrueder Beetz Filmproduktion, in co-production with ZD, in collaboration with Arte. This film was made possible with the academic contribution of the Zoryan Institute and is based on its Oral History Archive.
