Garod (Longing): A Film Screening and Discussion with Onur Günay and Cemal Kafadar

CMES presents 

Onur Günay is an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker whose work moves across political and medical anthropology, critical theory, Middle Eastern studies, and visual ethnography. He is currently Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Anthropology at Princeton University, and was previously a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Harvard’s Mahindra Humanities Center.

Günay’s work as a filmmaker is integral to his work as anthropologist and storyteller. His last documentary, Garod (Longing [Eng] / Hasret [TUR]), made with ethnomusicologist Burcu Yıldız, portrays the remaking of a musical tradition in the shadow of genocidal loss through the story of a trip taken by two Armenian-American musicians, Onnik Dinkjian and Ara Dinkjian, to their family’s town of origin, Diyarbakır. Garod was one of the very few films selected for screening in the 2015 Armenian Genocide centenary commemorations organized in Turkey, Armenia, Germany, France, Canada, and the United States, owing to its strong emphasis on hope, resilience, and the life-making capacities of people in the wake of violent catastrophe.

Garod means longing in Armenian. Longing for a land that lost its people. Longing for the homeland. Longing for a time that is eternally lost. Garod is a story of longing. It is about the lives and the musical stories of two Armenian musicians: A father and his son, Onnik Dinkjian and Ara Dinkjian. Garod tells the story of the remaking of a musical tradition and life in Diaspora.

A discussion of the film and a related paper by Dr. Günay will follow. A light meal will be served.

Please contact Jesse Howell (jhowell@fas.harvard.edu) to receive a copy of the paper, titled “Garod (Longing): The Story of a Film and Intertwined Lives on Music, Endurance, and the Afterlives of Violence.”