Aurora’s Sunrise: Purchase Tickets

Thursday, Apr 16, 2026

4 PM (96 mins)
BAMPFA

Inna Sahakyan
Armenia, Germany, Lithuania, 2022

In Conversation

Dzovinar Derderian

Dzovinar Derderian is Executive Director of the Armenian Studies Program and Assistant Adjunct Professor in the Department of History at UC Berkeley.

Myrna Douzjian

Myrna Douzjian teaches Armenian language and literature in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures at UC Berkeley and is working on a study of interrelations between various storytelling forms and media in contemporary Armenia and Russia.

FEATURING

Anzhelika Hakobyan, Arpi Petrossian, Shushan Abrahamyan, 

In 1915, at fourteen years of age, Aurora Mardiganian lost everything during the horror of the Armenian genocide. But with luck and extraordinary courage, she escaped to New York, where her story became a media sensation. Starring in Auction of Souls, one of the first Hollywood blockbusters, as herself in 1919, Aurora would become the face of the largest charity campaign in American history. With a blend of animation, archival imagery, and rediscovered footage from the previously lost silent epic, Armenian director Inna Sahakyan’s award-winning historical documentary reconstructs the life story of this hero, who died in 1994.