Aragil – The White Stork Movie Screening at AUA

On May 7th 2010, “Aragil – The White Stork”, documentary was screened in Alex and Marie Manoogian hall of AUA. The movie was introduced to the public for the first time.

The documentary illustrates the life of the White Stork in Armenia and the White Stork project conducted by the Acopian Center for the Environment.

Using an iconic species like the White Stork is a great way of drawing people’s attention on environmental issues. The White Stork is a symbolic bird not only in the legends of Armenian people. It’s also an exclusive indicator to illustrate the problems on environment: White Stork investigations can reveal soil and wetland pollution, the level of pesticides contamination, the impact of climate change, the degradation of wetlands as well as the human attitude toward nature.

The White Stork project in Armenia is the Acopian Center for the Environment’s flagship environmental research and education project. White Stork “Nest Neighbors” are directly involved in the project: the data and observations provided by them are the key stone for the WS population monitoring and research. The project won the Whitley Award for nature, one of the world’s top awards in the field of nature conservation, in 2007.

The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Shirak Khojayan - the film producer, and Dr. Karen Aghababyan, Interim Director of the Acopian Center for the Environment.

Dr. Karen Aghababyan spoke about the role of the White Stork in the ecosystem and explained how the White Storks can be indicators of a sound environment.

Shirak Khojayan, an Armenian born in Iraq, has worked on many Hollywood movies such as “The Norseman”, “The Evictors”, “The Legend of Boggy Creek II”, “Sacred Ground”. Together with Dr. Aghababyan he answered a wide range of questions from the interested audience.