The RA Ministry of Diaspora, the Public Radio of Armenia and the Center for Coordination of Syrian-Armenians’ Issues NGO have prepared a summer gift for Syrian-Armenian children.

On July 10 at 19:00, “Arevik” (Little Sun) Children’s Ensemble (artistic director Vahe Hairapetyan) of the Public Radio of Armenia will give a concert entitled “Rays of “Arevik”” at Hagop Baronian State Musical Comedy Theater.

The concert will include performances by Merited Artist of the Republic of Armenia Nune Yesayan, the “Ovsanna” Choir of the St. Hovhannes Church of Yerevan (choirmaster Shaheh Keshishian) and Syrian-Armenian children.

Late billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s Tracinda Corp. has unveiled a production company. Survival Pictures, which will have as its first production the Armenian Genocide-themed film, “The Promise,” with Christian Bale attached as the lead, Variety reported Tuesday.

Longtime Kerkorian attorney and spokesperson Patricia Glaser told Variety, “Survival Pictures was born out of Kirk Kerkorian’s unwavering dedication to telling inspiring human stories for audiences around the world. ‘The Priomise’ will be a wonderful love story and will open the door to the championing of human rights. This film fulfills a longstanding dream for Mr. Kerkorian, who was thrilled to participate in the development and casting process.”

Survival is described as telling stories of “perseverance, endurance and the inextinguishable fire of the human spirit” to reflect Kerkorian’s values, reported Variety.

Kerkorian died on June 15 at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 98.

According to Variety, “The Promise” will be produced and financed by Survival Pictures managers Eric Esrailian and Anthony Mandekic, with “Hotel Rwanda” director Terry George helming from a script he wrote with Robin Swicord.

The story is set during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, which was dissolved in 1922, with shooting in Portugal and the Canary Islands scheduled for the fall. Mike Medavoy (“Black Swan”) is producing for his Phoenix Pictures banner with Esrailian, Ralph Winter (“X-Men”) and William Horberg (“Milk”).

The script centers on a love triangle with a medical student, an American journalist based in Paris and a beautiful and sophisticated woman. Bale will play the reporter, and Isaac will portray the student, who’s conflicted by old-world traditions.

Anthony Mandekic, Patricia Glaser, Dan Taylor and Sheri Sani will serve as executive producers along with Kerkorian, who will receive his first such credit.

Rare, moving images of survivors of the Armenian Genocide were shown in Bologna, Italy as part of the city’s 29^th “Cinema Ritrovato” (Rediscovered Cinema) festival last week, after the footage was discovered by chance at the US Library of Congress, according to AFP.

The silent film, which dates from 1923, was buried away and forgotten in the Library of Congress before it was discovered by Mariann Lewinsky, one of the festival’s curators, who came upon the film by “a miracle”. It includes images of children packed onto boats leaving Turkey and lines of refugees trudging along roads.

The film is being shown as part of a selection intended to honor Armenian cinema a century after the beginning of the Armenian Genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks.

Also being featured during the festival are “Namus” (Honor), a 1925 work by Hamo Beknazarian that is considered to be the first Armenian film ever made, “Sayat Nova” (The Color of Pomegranates) a 1969 film by Sergei Paradjanov, and “Nahapet”, Henrik Malyan’s 1980 film about a genocide survivor.

Other rare documentary images include a five-minute film shot by the French army of Armenian refugees in camps at Port Said in Egypt.

But the jewel of the festival are the four minutes of “Armenia, Cradle of Humanity” shot in Turkey soon after the end of the genocide—a time thought previously to have only been recorded in still images such as those of German photographer Armin T. Wegner.

Lewinsky found the film by chance as she clicked through the internet data base of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF). Who shot the film and how it got to the Oregon Historical Society before being deposited in the US Library of Congress is a mystery, says the Swiss researcher.

“I sent an email to my colleagues in the library and they told me, ‘Yes we have something, but we don’t know what.’ I insisted a bit and asked if I could come and see the condition of the film.”

Lewinsky was quickly sent some photos and a telephone contact number.  Having obtained the reel, she quickly was able to dated it to 1923.

“The images were extraordinary, boats full of children, trains.”

Lewinsky’s first thought was that the people shown in the film could have been displaced Greeks—a theory that was dropped when she recognized a well-known Istanbul palace in the background of one shot.

Colleagues confirmed that, after the end of World War I, British forces assembled Armenian orphans in the building for evacuation.

“It is a miracle,” Lewinsky said.

A century on, Lewinsky believes a new Turkey is emerging in which Kurds, Greeks, Armenians and ethnic Turks are moving towards “moments of reconciliation”.

Films like “Armenia, Cradle of Humanity” can only help this process, she says, invoking her hope that it could be shown at a small silent film festival in Istanbul in the near future.

System Of A Down bassist Shavo Odadjian has released a collaborative album with Wu Tang Clan’s RZA, The Rolling Stone reports.

The duo had first announced their project, Achozen (pronounced “a chosen”), in the mid-2000s, around when Odadjian was hyping an ill-fated online music community called urSession. But other than the release of a few tracks (“Deuces,” “Salute/Sacrifice”), the group seemed to fall by the wayside.

Now, eight tracks of the act’s spacey, lushly textured hip-hop are available with the purchase of a limited-edition portable speaker, the Boombotix Boombot Pro.

“We both come from struggle. We come from oppression. I didn’t know Armenia was the first country to accept Christianity as its national religion. And I didn’t know about the Armenian Genocide. I knew about the black man’s struggle in America from slavery to civil rights to whatever we still go through, but you think that that struggle is just personal. You don’t realize, ‘Oh, wow, the Asian brothers went through a struggle. The Armenian brothers went through a struggle. Now the Pakistani and the brothers in the Middle East is going through a lot of struggle based on situations.’ Right? So, I became aware and that helped connect us,” RZA told The Rolling Stone.

“That led to our second song, which is called ‘Fabricated Lies’ and is about the Armenian Genocide. He [Odadjian] gave me a couple of books as well, but I was moved by the struggle enough that I wrote a verse,” he said.

Speaking about the first-ever concert System of A Down played in Armenia on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, Odadjian said that it was an emotional experience.

“We played two-and-a-half hours, 37 songs. We played outside to 100,000 people; there was no spot for people to even pit. It was pouring rain, lightning going on. I cried onstage a few times. It was emotional to think that I was that age, that they were like little me’s, my little kids. And we’re in our country, but it’s their country because they live there and we are giving them what they’ve only see on the Internet, live. From grandparents to three-year-olds were there, standing in the rain watching this crazy band. But it was just amazing and I don’t think that it can ever be duplicated unless it was a 200th anniversary. It was perfect. Everything perfectly fell into place,” said Odadjian.

The entire music video for Arab singer Walid ash Shami’s new song “Mabruk lil huzn” (“Congratulations Sadness”) was made in Yerevan. The song has nothing to do with the Armenians, reports “Armenpress”, citing the Khabar Armani Arab-language website.

This is the first music video that the Rotana Company made in Armenia. It includes scenes of Republic Square, the “dancing” fountains at Republic Square and the temple in Garni.

With the aim of helping boost computer literacy in Artsakh schools, the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Cypriot affiliate has initiated and sponsored the establishment of computer classrooms at five secondary schools in the Karvachar area, by donating six computer systems as well as computer furniture to each of the schools. The government of Artsakh has given the project additional support by funding the complete renovation of the computer classrooms.

The beneficiaries of the project comprise the William Saroyan School (city of Karvachar), J. Jlavyan School (Nor Verin Shen village), S. Erumyans School (Nor Brajur village), V. Nazaryan School (Nor Getashen village), and P. Ghevondyan School (Yeghegnut village). The five schools have a total of close to 300 students. As Zhora Sargsyan, principal of the P. Ghevondyan School, stated, today it would be hard to imagine the life of children and teenagers without computers, especially at school.

Sebouh Tavitian, chair of the Hayastan All-Armenian Fund’s Cypriot affiliate, said he’s delighted that the small Armenian community of Cyprus was able to help enhance the learning experienceof Artsakh schoolchildren. “I’m sure they will take good care of their new computers and enjoy using them to broaden their knowledge and skills,” Tavitian stated.