The Armenian Graduate Students’ Association at UCLA held a screening of Screamers at Melnitz Hall at UCLA on April 17, 2008. The DVD is now available for purchase at Best Buy, Amazon.com, and to rent through Netflix movies.She lives a life the rest of us only watch movies about. You know, the kind where a pretty girl goes undercover and videotapes events that make groundbreaking news and change the course of history? Yeah, Carla Garabedian is one of those women.
"I have been fortunate, often times…a woman is not taken very seriously so you can easily blend in," Garabedian said. "People think that you are working for somebody or you are the wife or the girlfriend of somebody. People don’t know that you have a small camera in your bag."
Garabedian is every bad government’s worst nightmare. She admits that nowadays she cannot get away with the things she used to since everywhere she goes her name rings bells.
Her revolutionary film "Beneath the Veil" produced by Hardcash Productions about the women in Afghanistan earned her an Emmy in the States yet raised red flags everywhere else in the world.
In 2005, she won the exalted Edward R. Murrow award for her film "Iran Undercover" about the student movement in Iran. Garabedian always credits the persons who make her movies possible. In the case with Iran, the individuals who gave her the most information were regular college students who simply wanted basic freedoms of expression.
"It’s really the people who are risking their lives getting us tapes from the inside. Western journalists can get away with things, however the students can’t," Garabedian stated. "They will be killed."
Her trips to Afghanistan and Iran, or even her time spent on the border of North Korea and China are nothing compared to her brief stay in Chechnya, her most dangerous expenditure.
Garabedian went deep undercover to reveal the situation in Chechnya in 2000. She recalls her crew members calling home and telling their relatives their last words considering they had no guarantee of coming out of Chechnya alive. She spent her time in Chechnya pretending to be a native while gathering information and videotaping daily occurrences.
Garabedian went deep undercover to reveal the situation in Chechnya in 2000. She recalls her crew members calling home and telling their relatives their last words considering they had no guarantee of coming out of Chechnya alive. She spent her time in Chechnya pretending to be a native while gathering information and videotaping daily occurrences.
Although she traveled everywhere risking her life, Garabedian was always very hush-hush around her family about her business. Growing up in an Armenian family in Los Angeles, Garabedian had to fight for her right to expand her horizons.
After graduating from North Hollywood High School, Garabedian’s father said that she may attend any university her heart desires only after she completes her general education at the Los Angeles Valley College, where he was a professor. He never realized that Carla would decide to attend London School of Economics.
In the beginning, she went to the London School as an exchange student. During her time there, the school offered Garabedian full scholarship to complete her degree. She went on to receive PhD in International Relations from the same school.
When school was over, Garabedian began pursuing her dreams as a journalist and soon became the only American to ever anchor for BBC. Once there, Carla decided to explore other options: documentary film making.
And this is where all the fun began…
Garabedian had good reason for getting into documentary film making. At London School of Economics, she met intellectuals from Latin America who were running away from oppressive governments. This left a huge mark on Carla’s perception of the world. Topping this was her Armenian background. Garabedian’s choices in representing people who have no voice was a clear and obvious route right from the get go.
"I can tell others’ story; maybe I can’t get mine rectified," Garabedan explained.
Recently she was able to touch home by making the film Screamers with a world renowned band System of a Down. Garabedian explained that Screamers are "people who raise red flags and won’t shut up."
Recently she was able to touch home by making the film Screamers with a world renowned band System of a Down. Garabedian explained that Screamers are "people who raise red flags and won’t shut up."
"Every genocide has had Screamers, but they have failed, but Screamers always make noise and the government has to listen."
Screamers tells the world about the human rights violations towards genocide victims, not just the Armenians. The documentary points out corruption and biased politics in human rights issues worldwide, such as in Rwanda, Iraq, and Darfur today. It contains interviews with Turks in Turkey, and even footage of Hrant Dink.
What motivated her to film the documentary? "As an Armenian-American, it is my job to push the American government to recognize and not to appease Turkey," Garabedian said.
"Our generation is saying that we are very happy to be here, but we now have to pressure governments to do the right thing. And it is not the right thing only by us, it is the right thing by the groups suffering genocides now."
"We have to realize our power and when it comes to politics, when you are defeated once you don’t give up," Garabedian advised. "You have to keep coming back and you have to scream!"
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