With the 106th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide on April 24, a pair of moving, personal documentaries shedding light on the lasting trauma are coming to Fresno’s PBS TV station. The wounds were reopened by the recent war between Azerbaijan, backed by Turkey, and the Armenians in the contested region of Nagorno-Karabakh, also known as Artsakh.

Making its California Central Valley premiere, “100 Years from Home” will air on Valley PBS (channel 18.1) on Thursday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m., with an encore broadcast on Saturday, April 24 at 7:00 p.m. The screenings coincide with the anniversary of the genocide. “What Will Become of Us” follows at 8:30 p.m.

“100 Years from Home” follows California born Armenian-American Lilit Pilikian’s journey as she searches for her great-grandparents’ house in modern-day Kars, Turkey, which they were forced to abandon over a century ago during the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire that killed over 1.5 million Armenians during and after World War I. In a chilling parallel, many Armenian refugees in Artsakh today have lost their homes as a result of the most recent war.

She and her filmmaker husband Jared White embarked on an emotional journey to Armenia to document the tens of thousands who marched to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia on the 100th anniversary of the Genocide before venturing to Turkey in search of the house.

The documentary “What Will Become of Us” is a forward-looking feature documentary produced for public television distribution that speaks to the many immigrant communities who have experienced trauma.

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