SAN FRANCISCO, CA - On Wednesday, November 30, 2011, "Grandma's Tattoos," a documentary film by Suzanne Khardalian, made its debut U.S. screening to a capacity audience gathered in the Calvary Armenian Congregational Church hall. The event was co-hosted by the San Francisco Bay Area Armenian National Committee (Bay Area ANC), the Armenian Youth Federation - San Francisco "Rosdom" Chapter, Asbarez, and the Genocide Education Project.

 

"Grandma's Tattoos" is Khardalian's journey into her family history that investigates the story behind Grandma Khanoum's odd tattoos and reveals part of the seldom-discussed fate of Armenian women and girls during the Armenian Genocide. In1919, just at the end of WWI, the Allied forces reclaimed 90,819 young Armenian girls and children who, during the war years, were forced to become prostitutes to survive or had given birth to children after forced marriages or rape. Many of these women were tattooed as a sign that they were someone's property. European and American missionaries organized help and saved thousands of refugees who later were scattered all over the world to places like Beirut, Marseille and Fresno.

 

Khardalian, explained that she "was researching the Rwandan Genocide and recognized the similarities this crimes had with the Armenian Genocide. It made me go back to reinvestigate the history of the abusive treatment of women during the Armenian Genocide."

 

Suzanne Khardalian is an independent filmmaker and writer, who presently lives in Stockholm, Sweden. She studied journalism in Beirut and Paris and worked as a journalist in Paris until 1985 when she started to work on films. Khardalian also holds a master's degree in International Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School at Tufts University and contributes articles to various publications. She has directed more than twenty films that have been shown both in Europe and the US, covering topics such as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, human rights, immigration, and other contemporary issues in the Middle East, Europe and India.

 

"We are thankful to Suzanne for making this special presentation of her latest film possible and for joining us in San Francisco," said Armen Carapetian, who chairs the Bay Area ANC. "This is an important film that sheds light on the forcible transfer of Armenian children to Turkish and Kurdish families, which the United Nations names as an act of genocide," added Carapetian.

 

The film will be shown in a limited number of venues in 2011 and is scheduled to be aired on a number of television networks in Europe. Al Jazeera, which reaches an audience of 48 million viewers, will air "Grandma's Tattoos" in English, Arabic, Kurdish, and Turkish beginning on January 13, 2012.