paul chaderjian

*Community Rallies Around Tavit Lokian to hear about the homeland and find out how to help out Armenian farmers by Paul Chaderjian Asbarez (Fresno) -- "For me, it's very important to meet with people who work on the land, the people who work with the laborers who work on the farms," said Armenia's Ag Minister Tavit Lokian at a posh banquet in his honor in Fresno last week. "As a Minister of the people, I have to be that type of person." At the private dinner, sponsored by the Armenian Cultural Foundation (ACF), the Minister was able to do just what he had hoped to do – to meet and talk openly with the farmers and community leaders who have put Central California on the global map of agriculture. According to the California Farm Bureau, the region's ag industry has generated an average of 16 billion dollars of revenue annually. Lokian spent two-days in California's San Joaquin Valley -- dubbed by locals as the breadbasket to the world -- to ...

* Minister Tavit Lokian is awed by the efficiencies of modern agricultural technologies by Paul Chaderjian Asbarez (Fowler, California) -- Under the bright and warm September San Joaquin sun, a high-ranking official from the Republic of Armenia examines the color of crimson grapes as migrant farm workers pack plastic containers for Wal-Mart and Costco. Leading him on a tour through endless rows of vineyards are the sons of once-migrant Armenians from the old country, men whose grandfathers and fathers labored relentlessly on these lands for nearly a century, making California's Central Valley the most bountiful farmland in the world and their packing houses the most successful in North America. Chemist, biologist, urban planner, athlete, the representative of his people and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation party in Parliament and now appointed Minister of Agriculture, Tavit Lokian, inspects the table grapes, tastes the fruit and comments on the sweetness of it. Dressed i...

By Paul Chaderjian (Fresno) – Friendly banter about public toilets in Armenia and argumentative exchanges about the semantics of the word 'Genocide' marked the extreme range of reaction US Ambassador to Armenia received during his four days of non-stop meetings with Central California Armenians. Ambassador John Ordway and Keith Simmons, Mission Director for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), visited Fresno, Fowler and Yettem as part of their national outreach tour. The goal of the visit was to establish stronger ties between the US Embassy to Armenia and the American-Armenians, whose political activism resulted in Congress setting aside nearly 90 million dollars of support for Armenia last year. "We discovered that the knowledge of what was going on in Armenia, how that 90 million dollars-a-year that Congress voted -- thanks to all of your efforts -- the knowledge of those programs stopped at the water's edge. It never passed beyo...

Paul Chaderjian March 18, 2003   Sayat Nova                         Sergei Paradjanov's "Sayat Nova" is more than a motion picture bringing to life images from historical Armenian culture, it is a code that holds the key to unraveling the ancient reality of a people.                         Philosopher and writer Carl Jung believed that symbols were how the universe or god communicated to man. Jung wrote that the symbols were communicated to man's consciousness through dreams. Within that context, Paradjanov captured symbols of a people on film, so that he would eternally communicate that which represented Armenians to generations to come.             While the conscious mind of the viewer may attach differen...

Canadian-Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan cannot help but continue to make movies that address the themes of loss and the consequences of trauma, because so much of his personal history is dictated by the loss his grandparents' generation experienced during the Armenian Genocide. The person that he is and the art that he creates cannot help but be a reaction for one of the greatest traumas suffered and yet to be collectively addressed by 20th and 21st century civilization. While most critics and film fans believe that Egoyan's "Ararat" was his first film about the Armenian Genocide, a careful study of Egoyan's previous feature films will demonstrate that all his films address the issue of how one or how a group of people react and respond to loss. The theme of the trauma of loss, people's reaction to loss and the relationship of the people dealing with loss and trauma are what define Egoyan's films and screenplays. In his first feature, "Next ...

by Paul Chaderjian What is the cost of America’s obsession with media content? This is the question that Eric Bogosian asks in his film “Talk Radio,” and this potent question to his question is death. Bogosian, the writer and star of the film, speaks to the viewers through intense monologues about the issues that plague society. From drug abuse to people’s fascination with the famous, Bogosian’s character, radio personality Barry Champlain, tackles these societal issues, allowing lonesome and anonymous voices to articulate a range of opinions. Public dialogue may be healthy for a democracy, but the value that listeners of Champlain’s radio show place on the subjects and opinions contained in the radio show is what Bogosian questions. Several of the callers Champlain talks with on the air continue to call to preach their politics or win empathy or love from nameless strangers listening to the radio. Champlain’s ability to create live drama on the air by negating and arguing with ...