PORTRAIT OF GENOCIDE FILMMAKER CAPTURES THE ARMENIAN EXPERIENCE IN DOCUMENTARIES.

Byline: Helen Gao Staff Writer

THOUSAND OAKS - One summer day in 1915 - the year the Armenian Genocide began - Mikahil Hagopian and his wife, Aghavnie, received their third notice that they were going to be deported from eastern Turkey.

Certain that deportation meant death, the young couple hid their infant son in a dry well in the middle of a mulberry grove as they prepared to join caravans of Armenians forced to march toward the desert.

``To save my life, (my father) placed me down in it, hoping the Turks would not find me - that by a miracle I would survive. He had great faith in Providence,'' said J. Michael Hagopian, who survived the ordeal and grew up to become a pioneer documentary filmmaker on the genocide.

Now 87 and living in Thousand Oaks, Hagopian is completing his newest and most ambitious documentary on the subject - a trilogy titled ``The Witnesses.''

The first part, ``Voices from the Lake,'' depicts Michael and his parents' lives in the town of Kharpert, a major Armenian hub in eastern Turkey, at the beginning of the genocide.

A segment of the film tells the story of how, by a twist of fate, the Hagopians were ultimately spared on the eve of their deportation, when a high-ranking Turkish official fell ill and demanded the service of Mikahil Hagopian, a well-respected doctor.

The second part of the trilogy will explore the role of Germany in the genocide, while the third will trace deportation caravans along the Euphrates River. Those films are expected to be finished in two years.

During the genocide, 12,000 German soldiers and generals were stationed in Turkey, said Hagopian, who has a doctorate in international relations from Harvard University.

``We are not saying the Germans initiated it or instigated it, except for one or two instances,'' he said. ``They could have possibly stopped it, but they didn't.''

The second part of the trilogy will also explore whether the Armenian Genocide served as an inspiration for Hitler, who once reportedly said, ``Who nowadays speaks of the extermination of the Armenians?''

Given the similarities between the Armenian Genocide and the Jewish Holocaust, argued Glenn Farr, the project's co-producer. ``You have to ask, Who learned from whom; who taught whom? Were Turks unwitting teachers of the Germans?''

Using eyewitness' diaries, letters and diplomatic reports, as well as interviews with survivors, the first part of the documentary reconstructs in horrific detail what took place in the summer of 1915. The film premiered last year.

``It felt like a very detailed forensic investigation,'' said Carla Garapedian, the film's narrator. ``It's the anatomy of a massacre and a crime.''

To uncover a crucial passage scratched out in a diary, the filmmakers hired an expert, who spent months cleaning up the scribbles, pixel by pixel.

Throughout the film, Hagopian painstakingly corroborated each witness' account by comparing it against that of others.

``That approach came out of a need to validate what we are talking about,'' Farr said. ``These films don't exist in a vacuum. They exist in a political world.''

To date, the Turkish government denies that the Armenian Genocide took place, saying that both sides suffered losses during a civil war. Historians, however, believe that 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed from 1915 to 1923.

Over the last 30 years, Hagopian has traveled around the world, filming interviews with more than 350 survivors of the genocide, accumulating one of the largest archives on the subject. His office is filled with cabinets of film reels and shelves of books collected over the years.

Working with a skeleton crew and surviving off government grants and private donations, Hagopian himself operates the camera and interviews his subjects.

He completed documentaries on the genocide, ``Where are My People?'' in 1965; ``The Forgotten Genocide'' in 1975; and ``Armenian Genocide'' in 1991. ``The Forgotten Genocide'' was nominated for two Emmy Awards.

Aside from the genocide, Hagopian has also made documentaries on a wide range of topics, from silk making to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

After completing the trilogy, Hagopian hopes to create a detailed catalog of his collection of survivor interviews and make portions of his archives available to the public online.

Richard Hovannisian, an Armenian history professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Hagopian's archives of survivor accounts are invaluable.

``Many of the people he filmed are gone,'' said Hovannisian, adding that most survivor accounts are either in print or audio format.

Levon Marashlian, a professor of history at Glendale Community College, uses Hagopian's films extensively to teach Armenian history.

``The details in (`Voices From the Lake') reinforce the reality of the genocide that has been known for a long time,'' he said.

Those working on the project hope the evidence the documentary provides will serve as a definitive historical record that no one will ever be able to deny.

``I am proud of the fact that we have nothing in there that is false. Everything is real. Everything is true,'' Farr said. ``Some of the truth hurts. Some might not like the glare of truth - so be it.''

For more information on J. Michael Hagopian's films on Armenian history and culture, visit www.armenianfilmfoundation.com.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo: (1) J. Michael Hagopian, seen in his Thousand Oaks home, is a pioneer documentary filmmaker on the Armenian Genocide.

(2) One of J. Michael Hagopian's films, ``The Forgotten Genocide'' was nominated for two Emmy Awards. The Thousand Oaks resident is at work on a documentary trilogy.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer