Artist in Person

A portrait of a 94–year–old Armenian woman who survived the genocide of her people in 1915, I Will Not Be Sad in This World fuses poetry and art in order to raise awareness of the Armenian genocide, and to heal and move forward. As a small child, Zaroohe Najarian survived the loss of her parents and siblings during the Ottoman Empire's annihilation of its ethnic Armenian minority. One of the oldest living survivors of the 1915 Death March into the Syrian desert, she now spends her days recreating the gardens of her childhood in a suburb of Fresno, California. Infused with all styles of Armenian music, Karina Epperlein's lyrical documentary (shot over four years) captures Zaroohe's dignity and wisdom, weaving the personal into the historical in order to remember and honor her-and her culture's-tragedies and triumphs.