My Sweet Land: Film Screening and Panel at UC Berkeley Law

The Armenian Bar Association—working in coalition with the Armenian Assembly of America, the Armenian Students Association of UC Berkeley, the Armenian Studies Program, and the Armenian Alumni Association of Berkeley—has secured the reinstatement of the previously cancelled screening of the award-winning documentary My Sweet Land. The public screening will take place at UC Berkeley School of Law on Wednesday, September 18, 2025. About the film: My Sweet Land, directed by Sareen Hairabedian, follows an 11-year-old boy in Nagorno-Karabakh (Artsakh) whose dream of becoming a dentist is upended by war. Returning to a devastated homeland, he confronts shifting power dynamics and an education system preparing children for war rather than peace. The film’s urgency is underscored by the forced exodus of more than 120,000 ethnic Armenians from Artsakh in September 2023 following Azerbaijan’s military attack—described by numerous human rights organizations as ethnic cleansing—which culminated in the coerced dissolution of the Republic of Artsakh on January 1, 2024. Event details: Check-in begins at 5:15 PM at UC Berkeley School of Law (enter the building next to Café Zeb). RSVP is required by Monday, September 16 at 5:00 PM; no day-of registration will be permitted. Panelists and speakers: Director Sareen Hairabedian; Moderator Jennifer Redfearn, Professor, Graduate School of Journalism, UC Berkeley; Myrna Douzjian, Professor, Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, UC Berkeley; Betsy Popken, Executive Director, Human Rights Center, UC Berkeley Law; and Dzovinar Derderian, Professor of History and Executive Director, Armenian Studies Program, UC Berkeley. Co-sponsors: UC Berkeley Human Rights Center; Armenian Studies Program; Center for Middle Eastern Studies; Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; and the Institute of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.