Former Filmmaker from Bergen County Makes Film on Armenian Genocide

Press release:

Bergen County native and filmmaker Jon Milano is honoring his community roots with his new film, “Straw Dolls,” which focuses on the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

“Having grown up with such a strong Armenian Community in Bergen County, this is a subject that is close to my heart.” Jon Milano, a former Oradell resident and California transplant who grew up with Armenian culture, said. “Your friends have [an] influence on you, whether you want to admit it or not ... and though I wasn’t born into the culture, you certainly adapt and understand the history.”

An interview with Milano went into detail about the two-year process of producing and directing a film that centers around a controversial topic.

“It is only controversial when people make it controversial,“ Milano said. “It is true that the Turkish Government has not recognized this atrocity, however we did not set out to make a film to protest the Turkish government but rather tell a story that Hollywood is too afraid to tell.”

In telling this story, Milano wanted to make sure that the film was not just 100 percent historically accurate but that the stories he told were true.

“We took very little creative liberties with the film, knowing full well that when we make this film, it must be routed in truth, hence why the film took two years of research,” Milano said.

In their research they uncovered hundreds of journals, photographs, survivor interviews and academic books. But when Author Douglas Kalajian (Stories My Father Never Finished Telling) became involved, they were able to uncover rare stories that stood alone among the atrocities.

“We wanted to find stand alone stories, slices of a much larger tale,“ Milano said, speaking of the estimated 1.5 million Armenians that were killed during the Genocide.

The film stars Award winning Iranian-Armenian actress Mary Apick and Marco Khan (“10,000 B.C” and “God Is Not Dead”), with a full ensemble of young Armenian actors.

According to Milano, once the cast was secured, finding Armenia in Southern California was the next task at hand.

“We didn’t anticipate it to be an easy feat, but we also didn’t expect it to take as long as it did,” he said.

After 36 location scouts encompassing all of Los Angeles County, the team finally expanded their search north of the city.

“We had toured numerous Movie Ranches in the area, but everyone of them either didn’t meet our needs or out-weighed our budget. But then we found it, and in Simi Valley of all places,” Milano said.

However this location was not a stranger to Hollywood, this was also the home to Quentin Taratino’s “Django Unchained” (2012) and “Saving Mr. Banks” (2013).

“Needless to say we felt in good hands,” Milano said.

Photography of the film was completed November of 2014 and is slated to premiere in Los Angeles and Yerevan, Armenia on April 24, 2015.

“Regardless of the outcome, we made this film not only for ourselves but for the Armenian people.”