"The Morgenthau Story" documentary to be screened in Belmont

PanARMENIAN.Net - The National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR) will host a screening of The Morgenthau Story, a new documentary by Massachusetts-based filmmaker and artist Apo Torosyan's at 8 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 6, at the NAASR Center, 395 Concord Ave. in Belmont. The event will be co-sponsored by Mashtots Chair in Armenian Studies at Harvard University and NAASR, and Mashtots Professor James R. Russell will provide an introduction to the film, wickedlocal.com reports.



The Morgenthau Story tells the story of Ambassador Henry Morgenthau's commitment to helping humanity. From 1913 to 1916, he served as U.S. Ambassador in Constantinople, and with the beginning of the Armenian Genocide in the spring of 1915 he appealed without success to the Ottoman leaders to stop the killings. In 1923, during the aftermath of the genocide and expulsion of Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians, he helped save thousands of lives by successfully leading the Refugee Relief Committee in Greece.



Torosyan interweaves the story of Morgenthau with interviews with three of his descendants: grandsons Henry Morgenthau III and Robert M. Morgenthau, and great-granddaughter Dr. Pamela Steiner.



Torosyan was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to Armenian and Greek parents. He holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Istanbul's Academy of Fine Arts. His previous films include Bread Series, Water, The Gates, Witnesses, Discovering My Father's Village: Edincik, and Voices. He is an active member of the Boston Printmakers and the International Association of Genocide Scholars.



Torosyan has had many solo and group art shows all over the U.S. and Europe, and his work has appeared in private and corporate collections in Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, Armenia, Canada, and the U.S. One of his works, "My Father's Letter," 1991, was selected by the Museum of Modern Art at Tonneins, Bordeaux, France, for its permanent collection. His "Bread Series" is also in the permanent collection of the Armenian Library and Museum of America in Watertown, MA, and the Flaten Art Museum in Northfield, MN.