Thank You Andrew Goldberg !

Just wanted to say, Thank You Andrew Goldberg , You really did a Great job and the documentary was outstanding ...

If anyone want to thank Goldberg for this great documentary and all the other work that he did to tell the untold Armenian Genocide story , you can contact him at this email address...
Below is the latest interview with Goldberg ..

Armenian Genocide film producer Andrew Goldberg speaks to KurdishMedia.com

New York (KurdishMedia.com) 14 May 2006: On April 17, PBS aired The Armenian Genocide, a one hour documentary written, directed and produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Andrew Goldberg of Two Cats Productions, in association with Oregon Public Broadcasting. Using a variety of sources, this film tells the story of the nearly complete elimination of the Armenian population of Anatolia at the beginning of the 20th century. While remembrance of these events, known as the Armenian Genocide, is a major component of modern Armenian identity, the Turkish government and many Turkish groups actively seek to convince the world that the Armenian Genocide never occurred and work tirelessly to prevent any discussion of the mass murder.

Following the airing of the documentary, certain PBS affiliates decided to air a panel discussion featuring two historians who dispute that the Armenian Genocide ever occurred, drawing protest from Armenian-Americans and others. Andrew Goldberg took the time to speak to KurdishMedia.com regarding his experiences in producing the documentary, which included having staff travel to Turkey and Kurdistan, and his response to the controversies generated by his work.

Q:Can you please explain what motivated you to make a documentary on the Armenian Genocide? What do you want viewers to take away from your documentary?

A: I am not an activist about this issue, I am journalist. As a journalist, my job is to report on issues that are important for people to know. I feel the Genocide is far too underreported and is far too important to be overlooked. I also felt like the Armenians were trying to get people to listen to their story, to their pain, but no one would. So I wanted to help that effort by simply telling the truth.

Q: Please describe the different types of research that went into making this documentary. How long did it take to gather sufficient information?

A: I had done other work on the Armenians before this project so we had a running start… but the whole project took about two years. Research was done on the internet and with both new and old books, and on the telephone. Photos and old video came mostly from archives around the world. We dealt with archives in Russia, Turkey, the US, England, France, Germany, Yugoslavia and others. We also relied heavily on our scholars – Peter Balakian, Ron Suny and Fatma Muge Gocek.

Q: Did you face any difficulties doing firsthand research in Turkey? What, if any precautions did you staff take?

A: We generally traveled undercover. Still, our “tourist” camera crews were stopped several times by the army and police. It was very frustrating. We also hired a Kurdish cameraman and producer to travel to eastern Turkey and Kurdistan. He went there *very* undercover and asked that we not disclose his name for fear of Turkish reprisal.

Q: We know that you conducted a few Kurdish-language interviews for this film. Was it easy traveling through Kurdistan and finding people able and willing to speak on the Armenian Genocide? Was there anything unique about the Kurdish perspective on these events?

A: See above question for the first half of this and yes, it is Kurdistan and must be called that! The Kurdish voice is tremendously important because they tell the truth about the events and are not wrapped up the nationalism of many Turkish people – a nationalism that prevents them from telling the truth. Kurds do not suffer from denial, which I believe is a psychological issue for many Turks, and not just an issue of what people “say in public.”

Q: How do you feel about the current state of scholarship and awareness on the Armenian Genocide?

A: Far too little is done. And far too much is done by Armenians only. Also, the work in my opinion has too much of an activist tone. Others need to help the issue. The community can be very closed and often are not inclusive of others. This needs to be overcome so other scholars enter the field. Also, the amount of photos and film around the world is immense. This is first hand witness material to the events in ways that paper documents can never equal – for example, we have Raphael Lemkin actually saying he invented the word genocide because of what happened to the Armenians. That is why this material is so important. Philanthropists need to give millions and millions more to this effort.

Q: Are you surprised by the controversy generated by your documentary? What kind of feedback have you received from viewers and cultural and political organizations with respect to this controversy?

A: The controversy with the Armenians themselves had to do not only with my show but with the after panel. I was not at all surprised that that happened over the after panel. It was kind of obvious (to me at least) that that would be the response from the Armenians. The Turkish reaction on the other hand was less public but they did aggressively go after PBS to stop the film from showing. This effort included getting several congressmen to ask PBS to drop my film from the schedule. This is typical Turkish government and nationalist behavior, though, so it did not surprise me either.

Q: Do you have any future plans to further explore the Armenian Genocide or other historical events in the region?

A: No. This was a very upsetting experience for me. Seeing PBS get so incredibly assaulted by the whole world – justified or not -- was very upsetting to watch. Seeing congressmen try to stop PBS from showing either the film or the panel, regardless of the value of either, reminded me of Turkey where government controls the media. Terrifying. For the record, I never want to live in a country where the government tells the press what to do. The people can always speak out instead. Our government cannot even build a sidewalk and yet we are take seriously their nonsensical efforts at censorship? Again, no matter how offensive something is – the government cannot be the ones to tell us what we can and cannot say. It must only be the people and the viewers.

Going on, being attacked, often with fabrications, by nationalists in the Armenian press in California was very upsetting and uncalled for. In my opinion, it is press like this that only harms efforts at recognition. It divides rather than unites and prevents any consistent voice to speak for the issues.

Furthermore, raising money was nearly impossible. I was told by one of our funders that a man named Walter Karabian actually suggested that supporting our efforts was a mistake! But we were able to finish the film and we are very, very proud of what we achieved for journalism and for human rights.

As for the Armenian organizations such as ANCA (Armenian National Committee) and the Armenian Assembly? We tried to work with them many times but we found them to be entirely non-responsive. The AGBU [Armenian General Benevolent Union] on the other hand was amazing, outstanding and incredible. They were truly wonderful to work with and I wish I had such talented and generous people to work with on all our projects.

We wish you the best of luck with this and other efforts. Thank you for your time.

Thank you!

To learn more about the documentary visit: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

To order a copy of the documentary visit: The Armenian Genocide

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