Nubar Alexanian Explores Histories of Family, Armenians and Gloucester

“I was raised speaking Armenian as my first language, surrounded by the haunting sounds of the oud,” he explains. “Yet, no one ever spoke of the persecution that brought my grandparents to America. Not my grandmother who lost three young daughters on a death march, or my grandfather who fled everything he knew, never to return. When your family’s violent past is denied, how do you make sense of the present?”

Alexanian said he felt suffocated by the unspoken suffering and fled as far from his Armenian identity as he could. He rarely talked about his heritage until his daughter asked a simple question.

“Dad, will you come with me to Armenia?”

Thus became the inspiration for the film that sent both of them on an inexplicable journey to understand their shared history.

Alexanian has spent the past 38 years working as a photojournalist and filmmaker. He has traveled to more than 40 countries shooting for magazines such as Life, Newsweek, Time and National Geographic. He has published five books and rubbed elbows with some of the most influential people throughout the musical world.

He has grown involved as a recent board member with Project SAVE Armenian Photograph Archives while producing an eclectic video on the organization’s 40-year anniversary last October.

Abby is a graduate of Vassar College. Over the past decade, she has spent considerable time working on her dad’s still photography and film sets.

For Abby, the understanding of this past is a generation removed, yet intensely personal.

“It’s heart-breaking to see what really happened to them and to us,” she says. “But now, I feel like I’m beginning to understand my family and myself.”

The film is a feature-length documentary of how a young woman’s curiosity propels her reluctant father to join her in finally confronting their family’s dark past and discovering how the denial of the 1915 genocide affects them today.

According to the Alexanians, the project is on firm ground at the moment. Last year they were finalists for a MacArthur Foundation Grant as well as a LEF Foundation Production Grant. They hope to complete production by the end of September.

“Editing will begin in November and proceed as funds are raised to cover final production and post-production expenses,” says Alexanian. “We expect to have a complete version of the film by June 2017.”

For more information, see:www.whenthefishcamefirst.com or walkercreekmedia.com/gloucester.