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Aram A. Avakian (born in New York City on April 23, 1926; died January 17, 1987) was a film editor and director.

Contents 1 Life and work 2 Selected filmography 2.1 As editor 2.2 As director 3 References

[edit] Life and work

Avakian was born in Manhattan, NY in 1926. He graduated Horace Mann School and Yale University before serving as a Naval officer on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific. On the GI Bill after the war he went to France he attended the Sorbonne. In 1953, Avakian returned to the United States and apprenticed under Gjon Mili.^[1] From 1955 to 1958, he was the editor of Edward R. Murrow's program "See It Now".^[1]

He became film editor and director.^[1] In 1958, he edited and co-directed "Jazz on a Summer's Day", filmed at the Newport Jazz Festival and credited with being "the first feature-film documentary of a music festival."^[1] He also edited the 1960 feature film "Girl of the Night", "acknowledged for its early use of the freeze frame and the jump cut."^[1] His credits as an editor also included "Sin of Jesus" (1960), "The Miracle Worker" (1962), "Mickey One" (1964), and "Honeysuckle Rose" (1979).

In 1970 he shared the Golden Leopard Award of the Locarno International Film Festival^[2]

In 1972, Avakian directed "End of the Road", which received an "X" rating for its graphic depiction of an abortion. LIFE Magazine (November 1969) covered the film in a spectacular 9-page article, and in-depth interviews ran in Esquire and Playboy. In a review of the film in The New York Times, Roger Greenspun wrote of "End of the Road": "The precise truth of, say, 5 in a summer afternoon on the lawn of an assistant professor in a small country college has perhaps never been caught in a commercial movie before -- but that is the kind of precise truth this movie captures again and again."^[3]

Avakian also directed "Cops and Robbers (1973) and "11 Harrowhouse" (1974).^[3]

From 1983 to 1986, Avakian was chairman of the film department at State University of New York at Purchase.^[1]

For fifteen years, Avakian was married to actress and writer Dorothy Tristan until 1972, but during the last two years of his life his companion was former ballerina Allegra Kent. His brother is the famed music producer George Avakian.^[3] His children with Dorothy Tristan are photojournalist/author Alexandra Avakian and guitarist Tristan Avakian.

[edit] Selected filmography

[edit] As editor

• Jazz on a Summer's Day (1960)
• Girl of the Night (1960)
• The Miracle Worker (1962)
• Lilith (1964)
• The Comedians (1967)
• The Next Man (1976)
• Honeysuckle Rose (1980)

[edit] As director

• The End of the Road (1970)
• Cops and Robbers (1973 film)
• 11 Harrowhouse (1974)

[edit] References