[Bilimsel Haber] FILM SCREENING- Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber, NAASR Center, Watertown, Mar. 11

[Gonul Pultar]

FILM SCREENING- Destination Watertown: The Armenians of Hood Rubber,
    NAASR Center, Watertown, Mar. 11

Posted by: Christie Hardiman <christie at almainc.org>




Film Screening:  Destination Watertown:  The Armenians of Hood Rubber,
a documentary by Roger Hagopian
Event presented by Armenian Library and Museum of America (ALMA) and
National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

WHEN:  Thursday, March 11, 2010 at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE:  National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (395
Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass. 02478)
WEBSITE:  www.almainc.org or www.naasr.org


Program Information

On Thursday, March 11, the Armenian Library and Museum of America
(ALMA) and National Association of American Studies and Research
(NAASR) will screen Destination Watertown:  The Armenians of Hood
Rubber, a documentary film by Roger Hagopian. The free event will
begin at 7:30 p.m. at NAASR Center (395 Concord Ave., Belmont, Mass.).
Hagopian will also be on hand to discuss the creation of this unique
record of an important slice of Armenian-American history.

Destination Watertown:  The Armenians of Hood Rubber documents the
Hood Rubber Company of Watertown, Mass., which employed many
immigrants, including many Armenians, whose community evolved in the
shadow of the factory's giant smokestack.  Indeed, the plant provided
the impetus for the formation of the Armenian community of Watertown.

The plant opened in 1896, attracting Armenian immigrants newly-arrived
from the Ottoman Empire, including refugees from the Hamidean
Massacres of the mid-1890s.

Hood Rubber became a subsidiary of B. F. Goodrich in 1929, and the
factory survived the great Depression and thrived during World War II.
  It closed in 1969.

Director Hagopian has conducted extensive research and carried out
numerous interviews with former factory employees of Armenian descent
as well as other East Watertown residents and descendants of the Hood
family.  The documentary combines interview footage with historic
photographs, maps, documents, artifacts and images of the remnants of
the old factory, once one of the largest of its kind in the world.

Workers recount life on the conveyor belt and other harsh working
conditions, yet many remember their time at the plant with gratitude,
affections and humor.  Others fondly remember the famous "sneaker"
test whereby the durability of the product was demonstrated through
daily activities of local kids.

Award-winning filmmaker Roger Hagopian's other videos include Memory
Fragments of the Armenian Genocide (2007), Our Boys:
Armenian-American World War 2 Veterans (2006), Journey of an Armenian
Family (1999) and Memories of Marash:  Legacy of a Lost Armenian
Community (2002), which received the Comcast Regional Award for Best
Documentary Film.

For more information about the event, please visit ALMA's website
www.almainc.org or email NAASR at hq at naasr.org.


Christie Hardiman
Armenian Library and Museum of America
Public Relations & Membership Outreach Coordinator
[W] http://www.almainc.org
[P] (617) 926-2562 ext. 4
[F] (617) 926-0175




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Central Eurasian Studies at Harvard University