Emmy Nominated Armenian Genocide Filmmaker Dies

THOUSAND OAKS (AP) — Emmy-nominated documentary filmmaker J. Michael Hagopian, who interviewed survivors of the Armenian genocide, has died in Southern California. He was 97.

Hagopian died Friday at his home in Thousand Oaks, according to the Armenian Film Foundation.

Hagopian's family survived the 1915 massacre of Armenians in the Turkish Ottoman Empire and later moved to the United States.

Hagopian had been a university professor when he turned to filmmaking in the 1950s. He traveled around the world making dozens of documentaries about various people and cultures.

In 1965, he began documenting the testimony of aging Armenian survivors and went on to accumulate about 400 interviews. He made 17 films about Armenian heritage, culture and history and received two Emmy nominations for his 1976 film, "The Forgotten Genocide."

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