Al Jazeera to Air ‘Grandma’s Tattoos’

"Grandma's Tattoos," a Swedish production directed by Suzanne Khardalian, will air on Al Jazeera English eight times over the week of Jan. 11-18, occupying a prime time slot in all the key time zones.

"Grandma's Tattoos" (2011), a 58-minute-long documentary, chronicles Khardalian's quest to uncover the atrocities that scarred her grandmother, a woman who bore "devilish marks"-tattoos on her face and hands-that were the persistent reminders of a time in captivity and rape during the Armenian Genocide. Much of her experiences remain a mystery to her progeny, but the few tidbits Khardalian discovered years after her grandmother's death are but a faint yet terrifying echo of the hellish occurrences that haunted the survivors to the grave.
"Witness," the Al Jazeera program that will feature "Grandma's Tattoos," screens award-winning documentaries that present realities often in conflict- or disaster-stricken regions, from Nairobi to Palestine, Japan to Somalia, Libya to Turkey.