Azad, multimedia puppetry performance, 1 hr 30 min
Sunday, May 21 | 4:00 PM | Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
**NOTE: This performance is recommended for mature audiences due to adult language, intense descriptions of violence/genocide, and sexual innuendo.
Azad (“Free” in Armenian) is a kaleidoscopic story within a story within a story, centered on a storyteller’s discovery of her great-great grandfather’s handmade Karagöz shadow puppets in Aleppo during the Syrian war, a century after he salvaged his family and his art from the Armenian Genocide.
When Sona Tatoyan unearths a trunk in the attic of the abandoned family home, filled with Abkar Knadjian’s Karagöz and ancient magic tricks, she encounters his life and art with the ghosts of generations of family members long gone. At the same time, she grapples with the recent indictment–and possible life sentence in prison–of her friend and patron, Turkish human rights activist Osman Kavala.
The Northeast Human Rights Film Festival will host a closing reception following the performance of Azad. Please join us for post-show refreshments and a celebratory gathering after Azad.
MORE DETAILS: https://filmfestival.humanrights.uconn.edu/2023-festival/azad/
