It is amazing, for years I never saw an Armenian film, and now twice in one year.  I use to have to find a way, to make a film Armenian, maybe an actor, a screenwriter, or a director.  “Aurora’s Sunrise” is Armenia’s Official Entry to the 95^th Academy Awards and nominated for nineteen different awards and has so far, won some of them.  We made a date, my Bride and I, and made a special day of it.  We drove out to Birmingham, Michigan to our daily walk, as we also had to do some shopping for both of us, as well as picking up some alterations.  I did a “Google” search to see if we could have dinner in Ann Arbor, prior to seeing the movie, and of course we were directed to restaurants twenty miles away.  I guess I am cheap, or shall we say economical, but I dislike having to pay constantly to pay to park my car, so we parked and paid only twice, in stead of three times.

After we did all of our errands in Birmingham, and our shopping endeavors were successful, we decided to have an early dinner in Birmingham, before driving to Ann Arbor.  My Bride had been thinking about the cheeseburger and fries that I had at the Townhouse the last time we were there.  Sometimes, the simpler, the better.  Then there was the wine to choose, and we thought something fun and different on an autumn day.  We had a bottle from Domaine Passot Pere et Fils their Maison Passot Les Rampaux Regnie 2020. Domaine Passot is a family estate of fifteen hectares offering four Beaujolais Cru wines, a Burgundy Gamay, a Rosé wine, and two distinct sparkling wines.  They have recently begun the sixth generation of winegrowers.  Regnie was originally part of the appellation for red wines made from Gamay under the designation of Beaujolais Villages, but in 1988, it became the tenth Beaujolais Cru.  It is adjacent to Crus of Morgon and Brouilly.  Regnie is one of the highest altitudes in the hills of Beaujolais and noted for the pink granite soils.  The region is named after a Gallic-Roman nobleman Reginus who grew vines in the region some two-thousand years ago, and they have been growing there ever since.  This is one of the old-style Beaujolais wines that is made with the Black Gamay, but with the addition of some white juice.  The Cru Les Rampaux is planted with vines that average about forty years of age.  The fruit is hand-harvested and Initial Fermentation is for seven to ten days.  This wine is aged in Stainless Steel or epoxy-coated cement vats for nine to twelve months.  A pretty deep ruby colored wine that offered notes of red and black fruits.  On the palate delightful tones of red fruits, with a hint of prunes, soft tannins and a light finish of fruit and soft terroir of minerality.

We decided to take a very leisurely drive on the back roads from Birmingham to Ann Arbor, since we were not under time constraints and we didn’t need to battle with the road warriors on the freeways.  We arrived at the State Theatre, which is stunning in its own rights, as it still has a huge well-lit marquee evoking another era.  While the exterior is classic, the interior has been cobbled together and is no longer one large theater with a balcony, but several smaller screens, a quaint lobby, and a small bar.  “Aurora’s Sunrise” is based on the Zoryan Institute’s Oral History Archives of Aurora Mardiganian’s odyssey.  A genocide survivor, who originally has her story serialized, about her losing her family, escaping slavery and enduring what most people could not.  From her serialized story, and consequent book that was published, she was raising money for Armenian “Near East Relief” and she eventually went to Hollywood and starred in her story in a silent film, and her additional tales of enduring the greed of Hollywood as she continues to tell the world of the Armenian Genocide.  The film she made was “Auction of Souls” (1919) and for the millions of dollars that the film grossed, amazingly there is not a copy of the film that survived.  After the death of Aurora Mardiganian, some twenty-four minutes of the film was discovered (2009) and along with known stills and title cards, which was interwoven with clips of Aurora as she was recording her memories for the archives, and these snippets were then woven into a dramatic animated film.  A few minutes of watching and the novelty of animation isn’t even noticed.   Beyond wine, I also have as one of my many other hobbies, and is collecting ephemera from this time, and when there were mentions of my grandmother’s village.  The film touched me several times, realizing that it was the background of my own family and the survivors never really spoke of the atrocity and horrors that they lived through as children and young adults.  The film covers a “survivor’s journey from bloodshed to the red carpet” as aptly stated as a press release.  You may not see the film in a theatrical release like we did, but I do hope that you get a chance to see the film “streaming” on the small screen.