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with a surviving segment. He
related the tragic fate of the film in the 1930s and 1940s
and how he surmised that the remaining reels of the rare
nitrate based film were lost. Their true fate may never be
known.
From private collections in the
United States, in the 1920s the film was sent to Europe in the
1930s where it was shown. When originally produced, the film
included English intertitles for each scene. In Europe and Armenia,
French, Armenian & Russian titles replaced the English titles. A list of the original intertitles for Ravished Armenia
is preserved in the Selig Collection at the Margaret Herrick
Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and
are also reproduced in the book by Anthony Slide, "Ravished
Armenia and the Story of Aurora Mardiganian," published by
Scarecrow Press, 1997, which tells the story of the making of
the film and reprises the young girl’s story that was published
in 1918 as a book.
As reported in The New York Times in 1919 and billed as the
"official photo-drama of the National Motion Picture Committee
of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East" the film
premiered in New York on Sunday February 16, 1919 in the east
ballroom of the Plaza Hotel at a private showing for 900 people
prominent in American society. Mrs. Oliver Harriman, Chairman of
the Committee, delivering the address, told how the young girl
was a typical case selected from among her people to "acquaint
America with ravished Armenia so there will be no
misunderstanding in the mind of anyone about the terrible things
which have transpired." Co-chaired by Mrs. George W. Vanderbilt,
the committee decided not to eliminate from the public showing
of the film any of the harrowing scenes. Tickets to the showing
were $10 each. The film then showed in London at Queen’s Hall
before an audience that included Viscount Bryce, author of the
Blue Book report, "Treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman
Empire," who affirmed that everything "was true and if anything
fell short of the facts."
This DVD reproduces that segment with minor editing, an
introduction, sound effects, a musical score, 125 subtitles, and
a slideshow of several BW production stills, bringing the length
of the segment to 24 min. It was produced by the Armenian
Genocide Resource Center of Northern California and is
distributed by Heritage Publishing |
