Ravished Armenia (film)

According to a contemporary New York Times article, the first half of the film shows "Armenia as it was before Turkish and German devastation, and led up to the deportation of priests and thousands of families into the desert. One of the concluding scenes showed young Armenian women flogged for their refusal to enter Turkish harems and depicted the Turkish slave markets." The story was adapted for the screen by Henry Leyford Gates, who also wrote the book. ==Production==

The William Selig production was filmed in 1918–1919 near Newhall, California. During the shooting of a scene in which Mardiganian escaped from a harem by jumping from one roof to another, she fell and broke her ankle. The production continued, however, with her being carried to each set. A massacre scene used as extras several thousand Armenian residents of southern California, many of whom were survivors of similar events. Mardiganian felt she had been cheated out of her $7,000 fee for the film, having received only $195. She sued her legal guardian, novelist Eleanor Brown Gates—Henry Layford Gates's wife—and was awarded $5,000. ==Distribution==

The initial New York performance of the eight-reel To raise funds for the charity, the movie was shown in several American cities at an admission price of $10 per person, The film was first screened in London under the title Auction of Souls. In 1920, it was shown twice daily for three weeks at the Royal Albert Hall to obtain support for the protection of national minorities. The movie contained depictions of the flogging and nude crucifixion of women, and the producers agreed to cuts to five scenes for the showings at the hall. The film was not submitted to the British Board of Film Censors, which therefore never certified it for general viewing in the United Kingdom. ==Reception==

Because of the film's subject matter, distributors often scheduled limited showings of the film to community leaders prior to releasing it to local theaters. Still, in some states there were attempts to ban or censor the film. For example, after the Pennsylvania State Board of Censors banned the film, the distributors sued and overturned the state agency decision in court. In reversing the board's ban, the decision of the judge stated: The court finds it a fact and a question of law that there is nothing in the scenes which make them sacrilegious, obscene, indecent or immoral, or such nature as to tend to debase or corrupt morals. Viewing the picture as a whole, the court finds as a fact that it is educational in nature. It is not only a vivid portrayal of the story Ravished Armenia, but it is also a picture of conditions as they existed in Armenia a few months ago. ==Preservation==

The film was thought to be completely lost until 1994, when Eduardo Kozlanian discovered a 14–15-minute fragment in the Film Archive of Yerevan. An unknown company began selling a VHS transfer of the segment in the early 2000s. In 2009, the Armenian Genocide Resource Center of Northern California released a DVD containing the fragment, which has been restored, edited, and captioned. A slideshow of stills from the movie is included as well. ==Legacy==

Andrew Goldberg's television documentary The Armenian Americans (2000) includes extant footage from the film. The film ''Aurora's Sunrise'' (2022), an adult animated biography of Mardiganian, incorporates footage from the movie. ==See also==