Turkey
Turkey Delegation
October 30 - November 12, 2010
Filmmaker: Tal Skloot, Freeway Philharmonic
Expert: Niklas Vollmer
“We learned that there are very few theatrical screening or television avenues for documentary films in Turkey and the few documentaries that reach broadcast contexts are historical or educational in content and extremely staid in form.” – Niklas Vollmer
Delegate Report
by Niklas Vollmer
Documentary filmmaker Tal Skloot and I traveled to Turkey as part of the 2010 American Documentary Showcase. We were privileged to conduct workshops and engage audiences at universities, cultural centers and a high school in and around Istanbul, Ankara and Adana. We found the Turkish audiences to be well engaged, critically informed and enthusiastic about the ADS screenings, workshops and conversations at hand.
Per our shared, filmmaker, editing and teaching backgrounds, we collaborated and complemented each other nicely as a delegate team. Tal was wonderful at unpacking the overall production process and strategies he employed when conceiving, shooting, editing and distributing his film Freeway Philharmonic—a film that elicited meaningful discussions surrounding the economic impact of pursuing the life of an independent musician, artist or filmmaker. Although much of my responsibility lay in introducing the ADS program and facilitating the conversations related to exploring documentary strategies and the broader landscape of US documentary practice, Tal and I often reversed roles in terms of setting up and offering our own filmmaking anecdotes in contrast to also entertaining the more general filmmaking questions.
We were forewarned that the Turkish university professors tend to prefer traditional lecture-style teaching and that the students might be shy to engage us in a group discussion context, but were pleased to find just the opposite from the students, who were open and inquisitive.
Ankara
Freeway Philharmonic with Turkish subtitles
Our delegation began work in Turkey’s capitol, where we met with the Ankara Cinema Association and the International Ankara Film Festival teams. We were fascinated and impressed to learn that of the Top 10 attended firs- run theatrical films in Turkey, eight or nine of the films were Turkish—an impressive home-grown engagement that inverts the common Hollywood audience domination model––especially when considering the relatively small budgets involved with these Turkish films.
A commonly expressed frustration was that few Turkish films of quality make their way to the theatres in the US. We learned that there are very few theatrical screening or television avenues for documentary films in Turkey and the few documentaries that reach broadcast contexts are historical or educational in content and extremely staid in form. We also were told that most university cinema or documentary programs in Turkey are located in communication or RTF (radio, television and film) or journalism departments—and that broadcast was the dominant training goal for these programs.
We visited Ankara University—and a production program that, according to its director, is geared toward “producing documentaries informed by Marxist politics.” Both Tal and I screened our own documentaries as a means to offer examples to start a discussion focused on the program director’s request to help students speak to “conceptual approaches to documentary filmmaking.” We found ourselves in an active, rich discussion that questioned the excessive use of the US flag in American films and segued into methods to approach delicate socio-political subjects in a productive and ethical manner. The students were deeply committed to their topics and films; one was making a documentary about victims of landmine survivors and another seemed to be asking for permission to make a more personal documentary about her disabled boyfriend.
Eskisehir
At Anadolu University, a massive and well-funded university in Eskisehir, we met with the university rector (president) and toured the impressive HD production studio and editing facilities. We were stunned to learn that Anadolu runs a distance-learning “Open University” program for nearly a million students across Turkey as a means to address the lack of college access and acceptance for a sizable amount of high school graduates.
Tal and I screened our work to a sizable audience attending a Greek/Turkish Short Film Festival. As neither of our films was particularly political, they invoked compelling questions and discussion regarding the students’ perception that their documentaries had to be political in content—a misconception and cultural tendency that the communication program director took the opportunity to prod the students to re-think. I spoke to the broad range of subject matter addressed in US documentaries and Tal made the argument that the economic struggles the musicians depicted in Freeway Philharmonic made the film a social issue documentary.
We were invited to a reception with the attending Turkish and Greek filmmakers and were able to network and talk about our films and festival experiences. The ADS delegation also had the distinct opportunity to meet with the Lord Mayor of Eskisehir, who had strong ties to Anadolu University and an incredibly progressive focus on the arts as a means to strengthen the economy and culture. I was pleased when the dean of Anadolu University proposed an exchange program between his institution and Georgia State University as we departed the meeting.
Ankara
Upon returning to Ankara, we traveled to Turk Telecom Radio TV Vocational High School and arrived feeling somewhat skeptical about the concept of tracking adolescents into a professional training context, as this is not as widespread a practice in the States. Although the facilities and social context did reinforce service class distinctions, the students and faculty were so enthusiastic about their school that we couldn’t dismiss the many social and educational upshots. The 16- or 17-year-old students showcased two or three of their short fiction and documentary films, which were mature in their vision and had strong production values. It was also impressive to hear that most of these students were guaranteed industry jobs when they graduated.
We concluded our Ankara agenda via a hands-on workshop with students from the Department of Communication at the prestigious Bilkent University. Tal and I brainstormed with the students as a means to come up with a shared topic to explore. As the campus was dealing with issues surrounding a headscarf ban, the students arrived at the idea of the “Rise of the Islamic bourgeoisie.” Next, we split the students into two production crews—a documentary and fiction group—and proceeded to produce two edited-in-camera final films. The students were focused and brave with the camera as they addressed issues that were on the edge of taboo. Everybody learned from this impromptu collaborative exercise—Tal and I included—and basked in the enthusiastic collective response to the two very different and successful film outcomes that were screened when we re-convened.
Adana Region
We traveled southeast to Adana—a major city near Syria and the Mediterranean Sea that was culturally distinct from the other cities we toured. From Adana, we traveled to Balcali and screened Freeway Philharmonic to a large group of future English teachers at Cukurova University; they had a number of insightful questions about filmmaking and the US education system.
Later we dined with and screened the work of seven young Adana-area student filmmakers in the city of Antakya. These emerging mediamakers spoke enthusiastically about their films and future plans. Two films stood out from the others: one that employed animated photo stills and text to explore place and a forbidden cross-cultural/religious relationship, and another that employed poetic documentary form and a fake “voice of God” historical voiceover to explore how environmental disasters are represented.
Tal and I were able to stream excerpts of our work via laptops to groups of two or three students, and had a number of intimate conversations about documentary and experimental filmmaking. The students came prepared with their own production company business cards and were very appreciative, for example, of being introduced to the media works of Persian installation artist, Shirin Neshat, via YouTube.
Press and interviews in Hatay
Next, we screened Notes on Liberty, Trouble the Water and Freeway Philharmonic at the MECLIS Cultural Center, a gorgeous theater and arts center in historic Hatay—a city known for its religious tolerance. MECLIS held a pre-ADS screening reception, which was packed with local arts patrons and film and music enthusiasts. The post-screening Q&A was animated and began with a demand for Hollywood to make films in Hatay, which led to conversations about the lack of film/video production opportunities at the local universities and an invite for us to return to train and make a film with the students and people of the city
Istanbul
Q&A with film students at the American Consulate in Istanbul
We concluded our ADS work in Istanbul and nearby Kocaeli. At an Istanbul-based Bogazici Cinema Club meeting, we interacted with students who were studying English, art and political science, as there was no film or communication concentration at the university. A couple of the students had taken a documentary history class and connected to us vis-à-vis the films they had seen by Michael Moore and Errol Morris. One of the art students pitched the intriguing idea of making ethnographic documentary animations about family and her rural homeland, where a more “mystical” religion was practiced and is being lost. We encouraged her to pursue this ambitious project and consult us via e-mail or Facebook when she began.
As access to YouTube was shut down by the Turkish president during part of the time we were there, I asked the students to help us understand this, which ended up in fascinating discussions surrounding censorship and freedom of expression. The political science students in attendance at Bogazici unpacked the issue best and Tal and I were privy to a fascinating lesson in Turkish politics and the struggle that a secular government negotiates as a result of the confluences that bind its current conservative political and religious identities.
Next, we traveled to Kocaeli University—an institution that saw 75 percent of its infrastructure devastated by the 1999 earthquake and which was located in the working class, industrial suburbs of mega-city, Istanbul. The Department of Communication at Kocaeli has an under-funded production component—yet the students were hungry, active filmmakers with numerous questions about the making of and costs associated with Freeway Philharmonic. When one of them students “called out” the present dean for not providing professional production gear, Tal and I treaded the delicate line of speaking to the need for filmmakers to be resourceful and make films with whatever was accessible, while simultaneously pointing out the need for students to be trained on equipment that will allow them to step into professional production contexts when they graduate.
Back in Istanbul, working class Kocaeli was contrasted to the more upscale Kadar Has University, which boasts beautiful facilities housed in a converted, historic tobacco factory. Kadar Has is an English-language university and, at the screening, we met with production students and later discovered an American ex-patriot faculty member whose research expertise was documentary studies. The students were eager to workshop their film concepts with us.
Tal and I appreciated the fact that both faculty and students came out for our penultimate delegation presentation at Istanbul’s Beykent University. This rapid-fire conversation discussed the students’ ongoing production work, how to apply to––and what it was like to be a student at––a US university. There were also more philosophical questions that attempted to answer and bridge the conflict between training industrial vs. independent filmmakers.
We concluded our ADS work with a screening and discussion with five Istanbul-based young filmmakers at the US Consulate. As an academic filmmaker, I found it wonderful to conclude our Turkey delegation conversation with these dedicated, emerging filmmakers. They opened our eyes to some of Turkey’s socio-political issues by screening films that dealt with the systematic oppression of Romani people, the environmental and social impact of the government bulldozing of small-scale cultures, and a beautifully shot film that attempted to visually simulate how a blind person negotiates life. As educators, Tal and I both left energized by the enthusiasm these talented students brought to our departing exchange.
Conclusion
The American Documentary Showcase program is vital and provided us with tremendous access to unexpected places and audiences of between 20 and 150 people. It is truly wonderful to meet and befriend Turkish students and colleagues and understand a bit more about the Turkish film training and industry, as well as one’s own self and context by stepping out elsewhere.
I research community building through the camera and would be thrilled to see the American Documentary Showcase program continue and build more permanent cross-cultural and collaborative mediamaking relationships via an updated “distance education” model that goes beyond the geography of classroom walls. If the Department of State is interested in exploring how innovative use of ubiquitous technology can further foster such relations via camera and social media outreach, please let me and the Department of Communication researchers at Georgia State University’s Peripheral Visions lab know.
Thanks
Our three primary Cultural Affair Specialists, Gozde Dogan (Ankara and Eskisehir), Debra Lo (Adana, Antakya and Hatay) and Sevil Sezen (Istanbul and Kocaeli), and the colleagues and translators who accompanied them, were a pleasure to travel with, and incredible at preparing the context that kept the ADS Turkey delegation on target, per our hectic workshop and presentation agenda. Tal and I are entirely grateful and appreciative of their professionalism, expertise and camaraderie.