‘100 Years from Home’ Takes Us to Kars and Back

White said, “It was in the process of making it that her [Pilikian’s] story became more central to the film. We figured that Lilit’s story is a good window into this world, especially for non-Armenians who don’t know anything about the Genocide or much about Armenians. It wasn’t just a history lesson then—it was a more engaging story.”

In order to get to Kars to search for the ancestral family home, they decided the safest way was to take a group tour from Armenia. They also visited Ani and Van. The trip to Turkey was short but tense and brought up a lot of emotions and anxiety for Pilikian in particular. White reflected that “I am there with the camera filming her as she is the subject of the film. At the same time, I know that she is going through all of these difficult emotional feelings, and especially when we went into Turkey…I was trying to be there for her and support her as much as I could while filming her with the camera. It was a strange balancing act, but at the end of the day, I think making the film actually brought us closer together.” “Yes,” Pilikian quietly interjected.

White said, “There was a sort of therapeutic aspect to making the film.” Being interviewed, Pilikian said, “helped me deal with those emotions, and where I fit in all this.” White added, “I better understood her through that process as well.”

In Kars, White said, “She was literally walking in the footsteps of her ancestors in the town they lived and walked in.” Pilikian pointed out, “Walking in those footsteps, you give it a physical face. I don’t know how different I am from the previous generations in the sense that they kept that blueprint and they had the intention of going back at some point. I was the first one who had the means and felt secure enough to be able to travel there. Maybe my parents could have, but I don’t think they wanted to, maybe because they felt closer to those stories.”

Without giving away some crucial developments in the film, it can be revealed that the search for the family house in Kars was suspenseful. The city had grown and changed over a century, while street names were in Turkish. The search continued through the wee hours of the night because the tour was only there till 5 a.m. in the morning.

Compilation and Editing

The presentation of general information about the Armenian identity in the film was lively and unusual because in part it was through a series of well-known Armenian in different fields. There was comedian Vahe Berberian, historical architecture specialist Samvel Karapetyan, historian Richard Hovannisian, political figure Raffi Hovannisian, filmmaker Carla Garapedian, journalist and lecturer Maria Armoudian, and church leader Archbishop Pargev Martirosyan from Artsakh.

White said that they only knew one or two of the interviewees beforehand and the rest they had to find by reaching out to people. Pilikian said, “When we reached out, they would say, you know who you need to talk to next? And then they would recommend others.” Shushan Karapetian at UCLA served as an adviser in this process.

White explained that in the case of cofounder of the social news website Reddit Alexis Ohanian, he just sent a private message via Reddit when he saw that Ohanian was going to be in Yerevan for a tech conference while the filmmaking couple were there. Raffi Krikorian, former vice president of engineering for Twitter, was at the same conference, and White connected by tweeting him.

The striking visual images of places like Yerevan’s Armenian Genocide Memorial, Ani, Kars and Van were made richer with a blend of different types of music. Pilikian said, “Our wonderful composer Emily Rice helped us with much of the music you hear—the placement of it.” White said, “She incorporated a lot of Armenian elements into the score.” Popular Armenian composer Ara Gevorgyan permitted the use of his music, Lusaber Choir performed some traditional music and Ruben Haroutunian played what Rice wrote for different parts of the score on the duduk.

Making the film was a long process requiring great expenditure of time, and the filmmaking duo donated their time for the good part of four years. They raised money through a Kickstarter campaign initially to get the necessary equipment, and then self-funded the rest.

Pilikian said, “Thankfully, we had enough passionate friends who were also very talented and willing to work on this project for a reasonable amount, on a shoestring budget.” White had his editing setup in their home and so was able to do a lot. Pilikian said, “Jared was good in getting things started, and then we would bring in a professional to do the last bit of polish.” Postproduction on music and sound was important. Having Gayane Grajian as co-editor was useful because she understood the Armenian-language interviews. Most importantly, White said, “Our co-editor helped a lot with honing in on the most powerful parts of the story. We had an outline, a plan, going in, but it changed so much.”

As the film was being edited, the couple said they did occasional informal test screenings with filmmakers and other friends. They asked questions to understand what audience members might want to learn more about and their opinions about various parts of the film. One important thing they quickly learned, White said, was that when they showed it to non-Armenians, they would think that the trip to Turkey was like a holiday or nice vacation. They did not understand what the big deal it was, so material was expanded in the film to make it clear why this was a big deal, with the ongoing hatred of Armenians, general political restrictions making it dangerous to criticize the government, and specifically mention of the Armenian Genocide potentially being considered a crime.

The screenings helped, White said, also because “we had become so immersed in this world and knew so much about it that we forgot what we didn’t know in the beginning of the process.” They also learned that they did not go into as much depth on certain topics. White said, “We had a whole section on Artsakh which we reduced to a few sentences. That was another challenge. There were lots of parts where I needed to summarize hundreds, if not thousands, of years of history in a sentence or two.”

Pilikian said, “We want to give the information necessary for someone who doesn’t know anything about it, but only so much as they need to know in order to understand what we are showing them.” The couple, she said, watched a lot of prior Armenian Genocide documentaries to see what they covered. She said, “We didn’t want to do the same things they did. We saw that we don’t have to do this historical retelling in-depth of the genocide. These things already exist.”

Distribution

The couple offered the film to festivals and premiered it at the Arpa International Film Festival in Los Angeles in November, 2019. They did a private screening for the cast and crew and others who helped in the US, and another one in Armenia.

They also began submitting the film to various television outlets. White said, “PBS was the goal from the beginning for me.” Consequently, the couple was very happy that it is showing on September 1 at 8:30 p.m. at PBS SoCal KOCE in the Los Angeles area.

As it will be during a pledge drive for the station, there will be three 12-minute pledge breaks through the film, each spaced 20 minutes after the other. Pilikian and White will be interviewed at the first one, and Vahe Berberian and Carla Garapedian appear later. The making of the film and the importance of genocide recognition, among other topics, will be discussed. DVDs of the film will be available for sale on the PBS SoCal website, and Armenian subtitles are being added to it at present as an option.

There is a second Armenian film earlier that night called “What Will Become of Us,” so that other prominent Armenians like comedian Lory Tatoulian and musician Sebu Simonian will also appear during its pledge breaks.

White reported that there was no Turkish interference or political pushback concerning the film so far.

He said, “We hope to take the film to more PBS stations throughout the country. The better it does on the broadcast on September 1, the better chance we have to take it to other stations and maybe streaming services.” Viewers (and readers of this article) can request the documentary to be shown at their local PBS stations.

White said, “I don’t think we can have a full theatrical run, especially now that movie theaters are not open. We would also like to take it to schools, when it is safe to do so, and we are looking at education distribution to universities as well as schools.”

Until it comes to your home town, people can keep up with developments concerning the film through its website, 100yearsfromhome.com, as well as Facebook and Instagram sites bearing the same name.

Epilogue: Love and Truth

The film presents Pilikian as its protagonist so lovingly that I could not help but ask White whether the documentary could be considered a homage to his wife. He accepted that it could be seen that way, while Pilikian merely noted that during a test screening one of the comments of the viewers was that it was like seeing her through his loving eyes, as a sort of love letter.

White emphasized that though “the personal aspect was definitely there, I also did want to help raise awareness for the Armenian Genocide. I don’t think enough people have heard about it. I am half-Jewish myself, so I could relate because both peoples went through their own genocide.”

He concluded, “What I was struck by in the process of making the film was the importance of the truth. The countries that deny the genocide or other countries that don’t acknowledge it and allow the former to continue to deny it, I feel just give tacit permission to other countries to commit further atrocities. I think the best way to fight against more genocides happening is to acknowledge them, to recognize and talk about them, so they don’t happen again. I was really struck by the need to fight for the truth and for what is right. It is not just a morally good thing. It is dangerous otherwise to not acknowledge these things.”