paul chaderjian

By Paul Chaderjian Sept 11, 1999 (Yerevan) - From down under in Sydney to the German city of Frankfurt, from Glendale "Little Armenia," California, to the medieval French town of Valance, from Toronto to Paris, wherever superstar Nune Yesayan performed over the past year her awed and inspired audience of young and old would chant "Nune! Nune!" in unison. In response, the slender, 30-year-old, drop dead gorgeous, modern day minstrel would sound back with her rendition of the popular 70s song "Nune. Nune." Around the year of Nune's birth, 1969, pop artists like Adiss Harmandian in the Diaspora and other popular performers in Europe and Armenia, made the song and name "Nune" a household word. From the suburbs of Beirut, to the suburbs of Yerevan, Armenians sang the lyrics of the song about forbidden love, unfulfilled desire and the deliberate and final act of a young woman being whisked away by her true love. Nune's parents gave her the nam...

by Paul Chaderjian AIM Magazine 1998 "If you are alert to the Creative, you will meet with good fortune now.” --from “I Ching - Book of Changes” It’s a sunny spring afternoon in Los Angeles. Melrose Avenue is bustling with traffic. On the sidewalks, young people mill around posing for the invisible camera; they are the walking ads for C.K., Dockers and Levi’s. A group of conservatively dressed Gen X’ers, in white shirts and ties, slurp smoothies and eat vegetarian sandwiches at a juice bar; a roaring Harley whizzes by calling attention to itself. It’s all for show, here- all for the ego. It’s not only about being looked at and looking, but it’s also about being a somebody in a sea of bodies. Melrose has always attracted the hippest and coolest of visitors and residents; after all, millions watch the FOX drama named after this place. But unlike those who are trying to keep up with a beat set by Wall Street and Madison Avenue, a young Armenian, a Buddhist, is marching to ...

documenting the documentarian: j. michael hagopian by paul chaderjian spring 1998 The images are haunting, familiar, yet still powerful - a long line of deportees ordered to the Syrian desert by Talaat, a display of decapitated heads of men who once talked, smiled, of intellectuals and artists whose lives were cut short by the Ottoman noose. The narration behind the pictures is disturbing, meticulously scripted by a survivor of the catastrophe. Together, the story they tell is of man’s inhumanity to man, a story of strength, survival and character - the story of the Armenians. The prolific filmmaker bringing history alive through his words and pictures is 84-year-old J. Michael Hagopian. The Southern California resident was hidden in a well by his parents when their lives were in danger in 1915; his childhood dreams were to emulate Katch Vartan and Zoravar Antranig, to conquer the homeland and kick out the Turks. In 1998, Hagopian is celebrating his 50th anniversary as a docume...

by Paul Chaderjian AIM Magazine April, 1998 Yerevan, Armenia - Out of the darkness comes a flash of white, and from an enormous cloud of fog descends a figure dressed in a white robe of ancient royalty, a slender, long-haired modern-day minstrel taking the stage by storm. The concert hall fills with applause as Nune Yesayan begins to belt out traditional songs set to an untraditional and contemporary beat. It’s a sold-out performance at the Opera House in Yerevan; Nune has made her return after a two-year absence. The duduk and zurna provide the background. Male dancers in costume encircle the songstress while they move in unison shoulder-to-shoulder in a dance choreographed hundreds of years ago. On both sides of the stage, angelic, petite young women caress the air with the familiar feminine movements of hands and fingers. At center stage, Nune sounds the call for a return to the homeland with a passionate rendition of "Kele Lao." She sings the praises of hardworking villag...

bY pAUL cHADERJIAN oct- 6 '97 vANCOUVER, bRITISH cOLUMBIA "The Sweet Hereafter" is Canadian film maker Atom Egoyan's seventh film. It's based on the Russell Banks novel of the same name about how a small upstate New York town deals with the tragedy of a school bus accident which kills 14 of its children. The film is about to be released in the United States through Fine Line Films, and it premiered at the Vancouver International Film Festival last week after sweeping the Cannes Film Festival a few months back. At Cannes, the film won the International Critics Award, the Grand Jury Award, and the Ecumenical Council Award. I had the chance to attend the premiere in Vancouver and talk to Egoyan about his latest film and his career. What follows is a transcript of the interview . paul: HOW DID YOU COME ACROSS THE BOOK? atom: ARSINEE .. MY WIFE... GAVE ME THE BOOK AS A GIFT. I READ IT... AND I WAS COMPLETELY OVERWHELMED. I THINK IT'S THE MOST REMARKABLE STO...

bY pAUL cHADERJIAN It is the hour of the night when not many cars are on the freeway, and one can almost hear the silence. A metropolis sleeps, its citizens rest for their next day of drama, trauma, laughter, and tears; I sit, high above, in a pink glass and granite highrise, watching the bright lights of the big city, Vancouver, British Columbia. The terrain where this city is placed is the most geographically perfect location for it. Downtown is surrounded by water and nestled under mountains like Grouse. The "West End" is considered second only to Manhattan as the north American continent's most densely populated area. From the shores of English Bay east to the other cities that make up the greater Vancouver regional area are endless rows of highrises and skyscrapers, with dozens more under construction. These bright and decadent structures of steel and glass stand as testament of modern man's wealth and power and our mastery of engineering and architecture. ...