America’s immigrant communities have long provided Hollywood with convenient settings for movies about criminality and gang culture. Blockbusters like “The Godfather” (1972), “Goodfellas” (1990), “Road to Perdition” (2002) and “Gangs of New York” (2002) have glamorized and informed stereotypes of Italian- and Irish-American gangsters. Other migrant communities are relatively new to the big screen.
“Aram, Aram,” the feature film debut of U.S. writer-director Christopher Chambers, prides itself on being the first American feature to be set in the Armenian emigrant community. The first feature set among America’s Armenian expat community is probably Nigol Bezjian’s “Chickpeas,” from 1992, starring Arsinée Khanjian.
Chambers’ movie, which premiered at this year’s Los Angeles Film Festival, follows the challenges faced by Aram (John Roohinian), a Lebanese-born Armenian boy. When his parents are killed in a car accident, he’s compelled to move to Los Angeles to live with his grandfather Arsen (Levon Sharafyan).
“Aram, Aram” depicts a neighborhood torn between Armenian and Mexican gangs. Using English and Armenian in developing a believable cast of characters, it delves deep into the roots, traditions and behavior of LA’s Armenian diaspora. Unlike Hollywood’s earlier immigrant films, it provides an authentic-looking portrayal of a migrant experience.
The film opens with a depiction of Aram’s idyllic childhood in Burj Hammoud, Beirut’s Armenian quarter. Shots of a beaming Aram and his loving parents employ a dream-like aesthetic, with soft focus and reverberation. His happiness seems too good to be true, and serves to foreshadow the bad things to come.
By the time Aram arrives in LA, he is shy and reserved, seemingly an entirely different character. Uprooted, he must now adjust to his new life in the United States.
During a recent trip to Beirut en route to a screening of “Aram, Aram” at Yerevan’s Golden Apricot International Film Festival, Roohinian spoke with The Daily Star about growing up Armenian in LA.
Like the character he depicts, Roohinian is Lebanese-Armenian, though his family history is less tragic than Aram’s. He was born in Los Angeles, his mother having moved to the U.S. during Lebanon’s Civil War.
As his family doesn’t live in one of LA’s Armenian enclaves, most of his peers haven’t heard of Armenia. He said he often feels the need to educate them. “I feel it’s my responsibility to tell them [about Armenia],” he said. “I show them some pictures from the Internet, but it never shows how deep our culture goes in terms of knowing all these old recipes from all these old grandmas and grandpas. Their first question is always, ‘So what do you guys eat?’”
Though LA is home to one of the world’s largest Armenian communities, most outsiders know very little about it. In a press statement, Chambers describes LA’s Armenians as “widely stereotyped and widely misunderstood,” which sparked his interest and drove him to make the movie.
Chambers threw himself into research, relying on interviews with American-Armenians to ensure the film’s authenticity. This attention to detail makes “Aram, Aram” a well-woven-together tapestry of tradition and culture. The score mingles tunes by iconic Armenian composer Arno Babajanian with the rap of a number of Armenian hip-hop artists.
The characters speak different (eastern and western Armenian) dialects, which adds another layer of complexity, undermining assumptions that the Armenian community is somehow monolithic.
Roohinian said Chambers also drew upon the insights of his all-Armenian cast. Levon Sharafyan, who plays Aram’s grandfather, is a television and film icon and household name in Armenian circles.
“[Chambers] would give us the script and say if there’s anything you think needs to be changed because it’s not authentic or if there’s something you think your character wouldn’t do, then we can talk about it,” Roohinian said. “He was very open to changing the script, and he actually listened and cared what you said.”
Roohinian says he’s been acting since the age of 5 but “Aram, Aram” is his first feature film. He said he found the role hard at times.
“The role in general was easy but there were scenes I found difficult because I was 12 years old at the time,” he said. “A lot of days before I would go to the set I’d get upset and tell my dad, ‘I don’t want to go. I can’t do this. I’m done.’ He’d say, ‘Come on, you have to go.’”
Early scenes of Aram’s new life in LA reveal glimpses of mounting pressure. When events take a turn for the worst, however, Aram’s grandfather doesn’t seek to defend himself or rectify anything. Instead he waits for things to blow over.
This attitude contrasts sharply with that of the young Armenian gangster Hakop (Sevak Hakoyan), who tackles problems head on. The polarity in their behavior seems to shed light on a generational difference among Armenians – the older generation, who have a more immediate memory of past injustices, tend to avoid conflict.
Old Arsen’s feelings of powerlessness sometimes stem from the grief he feels at having lost his only daughter. For his part, the newly orphaned Aram is more susceptible to the temptations and charms of the charismatic gangster Hakop.
Chambers sees his film as a universal story of a “child’s fundamental need for a father figure.” As Hakop drives his Mercedes around the neighborhood, Aram watches in admiration, later mimicking the way Hakop flicks his car keys across his fingers over and over.
Many films that tell stories of the criminality of ethnic gangs spend little time exploring the cultures in which the gangsters grow up. Their heartless, violent characters not only lack credibility, they perpetuate negative stereotypes and misrepresent communities.
“Aram, Aram” is by no means a comprehensive portrayal of the entire Armenian diaspora in LA, Roohinian said, but it does accurately portray the complexity of a specific cross-section. “Up to now America has only seen [Armenian] stories about the genocide,” he added. “This [film] shows a different side.”
Since filming “Aram, Aram,” Roohinian says he’s wrapped a second feature and is soon starting his third. He said he intends to obtain a college degree nevertheless, in case his filmmaking career doesn’t work out.
“Acting is my passion,” he concluded. “It’s what I love to do.”
dailystar
