Hazel Antaramian

Independent Artist 

On Friday, I visited with repatriate Sosi Altounian, whose family left Lebanon when she was a young girl.  The visit was quite emotional both for Sosi and me.  She had written about her life in Soviet Armenia after she was approached by documentary filmmaker Tigran Paskevichyan.  While she was reluctant to be on camera, she indicated  that she would write her story for his documentary work.  This is the story that she read to me.  I directed my camera on a lovely butter dish that sat on the elaborate table of delicious Armenian food that she had prepared for my arrival.  My camera was set to capture her voice while it focused on the butter dish.  On several occasions her  words caused such emotional pain that she had to pause to regain her composure.  I felt her emotion, and at one time, we both had to reach for the tissue box.  After I have her work translated from Eastern Armenian into English, I will use her story to supplement my presentation material and post the scanned papers on a separate website page.  In the meantime, I'll prepare the audio interview for the website.