Connors Naration Highlights Silver Anniversary Screening of Saroyan Documentary

The stilled voice of a onetime Honorary Encino Mayor will be heard again in tribute to a fellow native of Central California.

Actor Mike Connors, who passed away on January 26, 2017 at the age of 91, narrated the award-winning documentary, “William Saroyan: The Man, The Artist,” a quarter century ago. The film will enjoy a silver anniversary screening at Saroyan’s boyhood Church, the First Armenian Presbyterian of Fresno on Sunday afternoon, March 5. More information about the screening is available by calling (559) 970-4785.

Connors was born in Fresno a decade and one-half after the Academy Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning author. Connors’s father, Krekor Ohanian, Sr., was admitted to practice law in California in May 1912 and was one of the first Armenian-American counsel in the San Joaquin Valley of the Golden State.

First released in April 1991, the documentary highlights Saroyan's personal life, his essence, character and philosophy, his works, his message to the world, and the undying love and passion he felt for both his native country as an American, and for the country of his forefathers, as an Armenian. Saroyan discusses his cultural heritage and its importance and influence on his becoming a writer. He rejects money, fame and glory and ultimately goes back to his roots and finds his final rest.

The film features narration by both Saroyan and Connors as well as graphic illustrations by Sarkis Muradyan, a musical score by Paul Nazlikian, and arrangements by Mike Dana. The documentary has been exhibited in more than 60 cities and 19 countries and earned the Gold Award from the Philadelphia International Film Festival (1995).

The documentary was written and directed by award-winning photographer Paul Kalinian and produced by Susie Kalinian D.M.D. A native of Beirut, Paul Kalinian grew up in Damascus, Syria and learned his craft in the Photo Gulbenk Studio Workshop of that city as well as Emile Brunel’s New York Institute of Photography. He has been a professional photographer for half a century in the Near East, Dominion of Canada, and United States. One of his characteristic portraits of Saroyan was selected by the USA/USSR Postal Services for their Commemorative Stamps as a humanitarian symbol of the friendship between the two superpowers. The first-day-issue ceremonies took place simultaneously on May 22, 1991, in Fresno, California, and in Yerevan, Armenia.

Dr. Susie Kalinian graduated with honors from California State University at Fresno, in 1994, pursuing graduate work in Epidemiology and Public Health. Kalinian received her Doctor of Dental Medicine degree from Tufts University in Boston in 2002. After graduation, Dr. Kalinian specialized in Pediatric Dentistry at Nova Southeastern University School of Dental Medicine in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Miami Children's Hospital.

Established in 1916, the Knights of Vartan (Vartanantz Asbedner) is an Armenian fraternal service organization that encourages members to assume leadership roles in cultural, educational, religious, and charitable organizations and activities for the betterment of the Armenian nation worldwide.