One of the important commemorations of January is the anniversary of Hrant Dink’s assassination. On every January 19 since 2007, the founder of Agos and brave defender of the Armenian Cause, Hrant Dink, has been commemorated through various events in different corners of the world and in different cities of Turkey. It was only last year that January 19 was commemorated with an online event. It appears that this year, too, a physical commemoration will not be possible. And this places a heavy responsibility on people of conscience, who try in every way to fulfil that responsibility. One such artist is Umit Kivanc, who this year is preparing to contribute to the commemorations of Hrant Dink with a documentary.
In an interview with Agos editor-in-chief Edward Dandzikyan, Umit Kivanc states that after his death, various writings, articles, and even volumes were published. “I believe that Hrant’s spoken word was more effective than his writing. His writings somehow remain deficient compared to his speech. Hrant, with his speech, his intonations, his emphases, was far more effective than with his pen. We would often confirm this phenomenon during our conversations with Delal or Arat. I knew that reviving Hrant’s speech was a challenge for me. For years I have struggled, watching videos of his speeches, because every time I get angry, and out of that anger comes not a documentary film, but only a personal outburst. The pandemic and the lockdown it imposed created the opportunity for me to resume this work. All I wanted was to emphasise Hrant’s righteousness, his power of persuasion, his tolerance for listening. Let the new generation come to know Hrant Dink not from the pages of books, but from his living image, his facial expressions, the emphases of his voice. This country, the overwhelming majority of the country, had not been able to hear, understand, and properly appreciate Hrant Dink’s words. That is precisely why we called this film ‘Memory Is Not Enough.'”
“Naturally, some of Hrant’s speeches will be heard by many for the first time through this film. I should note that the Hrant Dink Foundation has a fairly extensive archive, which was placed at my disposal for this work. So I drew all the material that makes up the film from this archive. To present it as a whole, I paid special attention to the transitions. Of course, it was a difficult process for me. From years of experience, I now know what result I can produce from the material in my hands. The difficulty arises from being carried away by Hrant’s words. It often happened that without advancing the film a single step, I would watch the same conversation for the 40th time and find it hard to tear myself away.”
Umit Kivanc states that this one-hour film, starting from January 13, will be available through the Hrant Dink Foundation’s hrantdink.org, or Umit Kivanc’s vimeo.com/umitk, and “YouTube” https://www.youtube.com/user/gecetreni2011 addresses.
