Aurora’s Sunrise

Aurora’s Sunrise

The Second World War was fought by my granddad; he landed at Normandy then came back home, never to speak about it for years. Toward the end of his life, he began sharing some stories often at family gatherings and always seemingly out of nowhere that he’d never told anyone but had clearly been thinking about for decades.

I used to wish I could get him to sit down and talk about his life, but I knew it hurt too much. And so, as much as anything else, it’s that feeling of what’s lost when history isn’t recorded that stayed with me while watching “Aurora’s Sunrise,” an extraordinary film about a terrible darkness in the world that also speaks powerfully to the value of filmmaking itself. It’s a dazzling hybrid that combines animation, interview footage with its subject and a 1919 silent film thought lost to history (a movie made about her life).

Imagine how powerful it would be to sit with your loved ones and see their terrifying lives unfold not just in new animated recreations but also in actual century-old period footage. Hollywood once found Aurora Mardiganian’s story so harrowing they turned it into a truly disturbing feature film. Now it has been resurrected more than 100 years later to tell one more time. Film doesn’t just record history; it can take us through it.

The historical documentary “Sunrise in Aurora” tells the story of the Armenian genocide from the perspective of one of its survivors and this is where its power comes from. It makes you think about how many stories, horrors and triumphs have been lost to time because they didn’t have a movie like “Auction of Souls” or someone like Aurora who could tell them with such confidence.

This all happened more than a century ago, but it feels so immediate in Inna Sahakyan’s hands as she gives it all to Aurora. There’s a narrator for parts of her story but we also hear from Aurora herself often, intercut with footage of her as a young woman reenacting her trauma. The layers of filmmaking truth on recreation on truth give it an interesting power because it speaks to the idea that not only must there be people willing to tell these tales, but there must also be those willing enough to listen.

I do wish some of the animation had been sharper though I suspect the lack of style is intentional. Characters tend to float instead of walk and have minimal facial expressions, but giving it a stronger animated look may have really heightened that sense memory throughout the whole piece. Christine Aufderhaar’s beautiful score helps greatly during these animated segments by adding an even deeper sense loss without being manipulative.

The interview with Aurora herself is captivating but I was most transfixed each time “Sunrise” cut back to “Auction of Souls.” Here is this silent film shot in the California desert with hundreds extras depicting abject horrors that took place relatively recently on the other side world. It was clearly an act activism, yet also just breathtakingly bold production that looks like it was actually dangerous shoot.

And almost none it was saved at all. In an age where everything seems record all time leading unbelievable access events happening across globe “Aurora’s Sunrise” serves as reminder that we can’t let any of this become mere white noise, that we have to really see and listen or else risk losing history which has shaped us all.

Watch Aurora’s Sunrise For Free On Gomovies.