Carla Garapedian facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Carla Garapedian
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| Քարլա Կարապետեան | |
Portrait of Garapedian
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| Born | 27 February 1961 Los Angeles, California, U.S
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| Nationality | American British |
| Occupation | filmmaker and former anchor for BBC World News |
Carla Garapedian (Armenian: Քարլա Կարապետեան; born 27 February 1961) is a talented filmmaker, director, writer, and broadcaster. She is known for making powerful documentaries that explore important global issues. Carla was also a news anchor for BBC World News.
After working at BBC World, she directed several films. These include Children of the Secret State about North Korea, Dying for the President about Chechnya, and Lifting the Veil which focused on women in Afghanistan. She also made Iran Undercover (also known as Forbidden Iran) and My Friend the Mercenary about a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. Her feature film, Screamers, was released in cinemas in 2006 and 2007. This film was highly praised by critics, with CNN's Larry King calling it "a brilliant film. Everyone should see it."
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Carla's Early Work
Carla Garapedian studied international relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She earned both her first degree and her Ph.D. there. After her studies, she worked as a producer, director, and foreign correspondent in Britain. This meant she helped create TV shows and reported on news from other countries.
Between 1987 and 1990, she produced and directed over 75 episodes of a show called The World This Week. Her first documentary, Cooking the Books (1989), looked into how the government might have changed official numbers. From 1991 to 1992, she became a reporter for NBC London Live. She also worked for the BBC, making documentaries for their Assignment series. These films covered topics like nuclear reactors in Eastern Europe, changes in South African broadcasting, and immigration issues in California. Later, she was an anchor and reporter for CNBC and NBC News.
Reporting for BBC World
Carla Garapedian was the first American to be a news anchor for BBC World News. From 1996 to 1998, she presented news and analysis for their main programs. She even wrote a screenplay called Talkback that imagined the night Princess Diana died, based on her experiences.
Making Documentaries in Tough Places
With new, smaller digital cameras, Carla started making documentaries in places that were usually hard for journalists to reach. She worked with Hardcash production company to create films for Channel 4's investigative series, Dispatches.
Her films often used hidden cameras to show what was really happening. These included Dying for the President (about Chechnya), Children of the Secret State (about North Korea), Lifting the Veil (about Afghanistan), Iran Undercover (about Iran), and My Friend the Mercenary (about South Africa and Equatorial Guinea). These films helped people understand difficult situations around the world.
Lifting the Veil
Lifting the Veil is a 50-minute documentary that was funded by Channel Four in the UK. Carla traveled to Afghanistan to investigate the public execution of a mother named Zarmina. Zarmina had killed her abusive husband in self-defense and was sent to prison. Her seven children, all under 15, were convinced by the Taliban to say their mother was guilty. Carla found the children, and they shared their story in the film. Lifting the Veil was first shown in Britain in 2002 and later in the U.S. on the Sundance Channel.
Screamers Film
Screamers is a documentary film released in December 2006. This film features the band System of a Down and talks about terrible events in history called genocides. It focuses on the Armenian genocide that happened from 1915 to 1923. The film also mentions other genocides, like the Jewish Holocaust, the Bosnian Genocide, the Rwandan genocide, and the genocide in the Darfur region.
The movie explores why genocides keep happening. It includes insights from Professor Samantha Power, who wrote a book called A Problem from Hell. Professor Power later became the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. The film shows clips from System of a Down's tour mixed with scenes from these historical genocides.
Screamers first showed at the AFI Film festival in November 2006, where it won an award for Best Documentary. After the film was released, one of the people featured in it, Hrant Dink, was sadly murdered in Turkey. Besides being shown in U.S. cinemas, Screamers has been translated into 13 languages. It has been shown in important political places like the U.S. Congress, the British Parliament, and the United Nations.
In 2015, Screamers was shown in Berlin, Minsk, and Moscow to mark 100 years since the Armenian Genocide. It was also shown in Turkey for the first time, as part of a film festival that features banned films.
Future Film Projects
Carla Garapedian is working on a new feature film about a murder trial that happened in Berlin in 1921. She believes this trial was an early sign of the Holocaust. This story was also mentioned in Samantha Power's book, A Problem from Hell. Carla confirmed in October 2015 that she is making a film about this important historical event.
Awards and Recognition
Carla Garapedian has received many awards for her impactful documentaries. Her first documentary, "Cooking the Books," was nominated for a Royal Television Society award in 1989. She has also received the Armin T. Wegner Humanitarian Award and the Clara Barton Medal.
Her film Germany and the Secret Genocide, which she co-wrote, won the Gold Camera for History in 2004. Screamers, which she co-created and co-produced, won the American Film Institute Audience Award for Best Documentary in 2006. It also won awards at the Montreal Human Rights festival and the Golden Apricot festival in 2007.
In 2009, AGBU honored Carla with the "Community Hero award" for Screamers. This film highlighted System of a Down's efforts to raise awareness about the Armenian genocide. Carla often speaks about preventing genocide and promoting human rights at universities. She was also a keynote speaker at the official commemoration of the Armenian genocide in Massachusetts in 2010.
Carla Garapedian is recognized by 100 Lives, an initiative that aims to "show gratitude through action." This organization launched the Aurora Prize in 2016, which supports humanitarian projects worldwide.
Armenian Film Foundation
Carla's father, Leo Garapedian, was a journalism professor and helped start the Armenian Film Foundation. This organization supported filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, who spent 40 years recording interviews with Armenian Genocide survivors around the world.
Carla narrated some of Hagopian's films, like Voices from the Lake and The River Ran Red. She also co-wrote his film, Germany and the Secret Genocide. After Hagopian passed away, Carla became the leader of the Armenian Film Foundation's project to digitize about 400 interviews of Armenian genocide survivors. These interviews were added to the USC Shoah Foundation's Visual History Archive. This archive, started by filmmaker Steven Spielberg, makes over 52,000 Holocaust testimonies available for research and education. It now includes testimonies from other genocides, like the Armenian Genocide. Carla continues to work with the Armenian Film Foundation, which is a key place for visual records of Armenian history and culture.
Pomegranate Foundation
In 2009, Carla founded the Pomegranate Foundation. This organization uses art to raise awareness about genocide and intolerance. In 2015, a special collection of testimonies from Rwanda genocide survivors was added to the foundation's collection.
See also
- Screamers (documentary)
- Forbidden Iran
