Golden Opportunity
Armenia’s Golden Apricot International Film Festival harvests global awareness, respect, and good will
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April 25, 2017
Keep The Promise: Mobilizing for Further Outreach
This weekend marked a milestone for Armenians and our century-long struggle for recognition. For the first time, a major motion picture depicted the horrors of the Armenian Genocide, an unforgivable attempt by the Ottoman leaders at the turn of the 20th century to annihilate a population living in the Ottoman Empire, along with similar aggressions against ethnic Greek, Assyrian and other minorities.
With its star-studded cast of Hollywood talent and its world-renowned Academy Award winning director, the film has had an incredible amount of celebrity support through its "Keep the Promise" campaign. Most importantly, The Promise has brought the conversation about genocide recognition and prevention to a level never before seen. Human rights groups and partner organizations like Human Rights Watch, Jewish World Watch, the Enough Project, Shoah Foundation, University of California, Los Angeles and Global Nomads Group have joined to elevate the cause by relating history to current events and vowing to stand together to fight denial in any form.
Armenians have come out in droves, mobilizing community groups to buy out theaters in incredible numbers. Just as importantly, individual members of our community have brought out non-Armenian friends and colleagues to not only watch the movie but also to look behind the scenes, and discuss the facts and their relevance to current events globally. We are grateful to all those who have invested the time and effort to make this happen. It has not gone unnoticed.
We appreciate the vigilance of our friends and are aware of a number of reported incidents of potential tampering of ticket sales in North America. The film’s distributor has been notified and appropriate steps are being taken to investigate this matter since the repetitive nature of these incidents raises serious concerns not just for this film, but for the industry at large. We encourage you to contact us directly if you are aware of suspicious activity blocking the film's success.
Opening weekend is just the beginning of our work. We must continue with buy-outs throughout this coming week and second weekend. Even as we work with our fellow Armenians, we must continue focusing on our non-Armenian contacts: friends, co-workers, schools and community groups, and anyone else who we know will appreciate the power of this film and importance of this effort.
Our job is not done. It has only just begun. We, the leadership of the Armenian Assembly of America (AAA), the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), and the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), along with our North American Coalition of Armenian organizations, are revamping the grassroots outreach and encourage you to join by thinking outward. Each of us is an ambassador of our culture and history, and we have a responsibility to ourselves and to this film. Contact us directly for ways to further mobilize this week. We must stand behind Kirk Kerkorian, the producers, the talent and the dedicated team that has tirelessly focused on this effort for almost seven years. Together, we can do more as we #KeepthePromise
Contact keepthepromise@agbu.org to join the “Volunteer Voices” grassroots campaign, or contact the leadership of the AAA, AGBU or ANCA to find out how to do more.
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