Armenian PM Margarian dies at 55

Sunday, March 25, 2007
seattlepi.com
Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

YEREVAN, Armenia -- Prime Minister Andranik Margarian died Sunday of heart failure, government spokeswoman Meri Arutunian said. He was 55.

Margarian had been prime minister since May 2000. He was appointed in a politically tense period that followed an October 1999 armed attack on parliament that killed eight politicians including Prime Minister Vazgen Sarkisian.

The assassinated premier was first replaced by his brother, Aram, but President Robert Kocharian fired him and appointed Margarian amid rising discontent over Armenia's economic troubles.

Under the Armenian political system, the prime minister has mostly executive powers and is a much less powerful figure than the president.

Margarian, educated as a computer specialist, became active in opposition to the Soviet Union in the 1970s and was imprisoned for two years in that decade for espousing Armenian independence, according to his official biography.

Margarian is survived by a wife, two daughters and a son.

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Tribeca Film Festival Announces Movie Selections

Mar 13, 2007
By M&C Movie News

New York, NY (M&C) - The 2007 Tribeca Film Festival, presented by American Express, March 10, announced the line-ups for its World Narrative and World Documentary Feature Film Competitions as well as its selections in the Spotlight category for the sixth annual festival, taking place April 25 – May 6, 2007.

The 2007 Tribeca Film Festival will present a total of 159 feature films and 85 shorts selected from 4,550 film submissions, of which 2,250 were feature film submissions. These selections include 75 World Premieres, four International Premieres, 32 North American Premieres, 18 U.S. Premieres and 20 New York City Premieres.

This year’s festival includes films from 41 countries including Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Belgium, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Russia, Serbia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, U.K., Ukraine, U.S.A and its territory Puerto Rico.

Eighteen narrative features and 16 documentary features will compete for combined unrestricted cash prizes amounting $100,000. These 34 films, from 25 countries, include 10 World Premieres.

The Spotlight section presents a combination of both narrative and documentary films that were created by acclaimed filmmakers, including Michael Apted, John Dahl, Patrice Leconte, Shane Meadows, Goran Paskaljevic and Carlos Sorin. These directors are part of a diverse line-up of 22 features from nine different countries.

“The festival, while young, continues to attract films expressing compelling views from filmmakers from around the globe and around the corner,” said Jane Rosenthal, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. “This year’s festival presents diverse, original, and, most of all, good storytelling which will encourage dialogue, entertain, and celebrate filmmaking.”

“Our Festival, and especially its narrative competition, continues to present outstanding new work by some of the top names on the international scene as well as by striking new voices,” said Peter Scarlet, Executive Director of the Festival. “And as in years past, we hope that our selection of documentaries will provide viewers with a few useful tools in making sense of our increasingly confusing world.”

Here is the complete list of films selected for Competition and Spotlight:
[...]
• A Story of People in War & Peace, directed by Vardan Hovhannisyan. (Armenia) – U.S. Premiere. A deeply personal meditation on the horrors of war and its effects is shown through the eyes of Armenian journalist Vardan Hovhannisyan. Weaving together footage he shot during his country's 1994 conflict with neighboring Azerbaijan over the Nagorno Karabakh region, Hovhannisyan creates a devastating portrait of lasting damage inflicted by the battlefield. In English and Russian.
[...]


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System Of A Down on Matters of Life and Death

MusicOMH.com
Dec. 26, 2006

It's been quite a year for System Of A Down.

With the release of Mezmerize, (the first of a two disc release), in May, they have managed to stay on the top of the Billboard charts in the United States.

With this follow up release to Toxicity, and Steal This Album, multitasking front man Serj Tankian's operation have proven to be amongst the most innovative and original bands to emerge in decades.

Serj Tankian, System's charismatic frontman, though frantically busy with SOAD, still manages to play an active role with Axis of Justice, the organization he started with Audioslave's Tom Morello. AXIS has been a huge political force in the Los Angeles community, and has been instrumental in raising social/political awareness of many different causes around the world.

In addition, of late, Tankian, narrated a powerful documentary, called Armenia, A Country Under Blockade, that was recently featured at the Myrtle Beach International Film Festival. He and the rest of the band have been extremely outspoken and proactive about getting recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.