Alex Arabian April 23, 2021
Director Terry George (left), producer Eric Esrailian, and actors Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale on the set of the 2016 film “The Promise.” Photo: Courtesy Eric Esrailian
Between church in Potrero Hill and Armenian Saturday school in Ocean View, Eric Esrailian frequently watched movies at the Kabuki Theater in Japantown while growing up in San Francisco. Religion, education and the arts have played major roles in the physician, Emmy-nominated film producer and activist’s life.
“I love storytelling,” the UC Berkeley alumnus told The Chronicle in a recent video interview from his home in Los Angeles.
The fourth pillar of his development is his family’s story. Like many first-generation Armenian Americans in the Bay Area, the trauma of a long-denied history bears a heavy influence on Esrailian, whose great-grandparents escaped the Armenian genocide.