The best documentaries invade Istanbul

The best-renowned Turkish and foreign documentary films of the last months will be screened from July 8 to 13 in the French Institute, the Pera Museum and GarajIstanbul. The event is organized by the non-governmental organization Eurasia Art Collective

ISTANBUL - Turkish Daily News

The Documentarist festival will bring some the best-renowned documentary films of the last months in Istanbul July 8 to 13. At the festival, the Eurasia Art Collective, or ASK, will present a selection of brand-new documentaries produced in Turkey and abroad, followed by a number of additional events taking place at the French Institute, the Pera Museum and GarajIstanbul. Documentarist will provide a full spectrum of the genre, generating discussion about the most important social and political issues of the contemporary world.

ASK is a non-governmental organization dedicated to the idea of a multicultural platform created through interdisciplinary activities and events. ASK, which has already successfully organized the Bodrum Film Festival and the Bafa Art Meetings over the last couple of years, will now create a stage for Turkish documentary filmmakers where they can not only present their work but also exchange ideas and opinions with other authors and producers from around the world, as well as broaden the viewers' perspective on contemporary issues.

The films of nominees for the Best Turkish Documentary Award will be presented at the Documentarist. The Turkish Film Critics Association, or SIYAD, which has been presenting the Turkish Cinema Awards for 40 years, will present documentary awards for the first time this year. The final selection of the movies to be shown during the Istanbul Documentary Days will be made from among 65 documentaries participating in various contests in the last couple of months.

New Yorkers on Latin American identity

The section of the Documentarist festival that is dedicated to international films is going to feature names from all around the world. Juan Alejandro Ramirez, a Peruvian New York-based filmmaker and anthropologist, is going to present a 41-minute movie exploring racial problems in the country of his birth. Through the pictures of a 1936 Berlin Olympic football match, won over the Austrian team by mostly black and Mestizo Peruvian players and later annulled by the decision of the referee, Ramirez attempts to answer the question of Peruvian identity based on skin color. In �Alguna Tristeza� (Some Kind of Sadness), by presenting a story of seemingly unrelated characters, accompanied by a wonderful soundtrack featuring Rachmaninoff as well as Peruvian composers, and a seductive voiceover narration, Ramirez highlights the most urgent problems of contemporary Peru: poverty, racism, mistrust and urban squalor.

A film by New York-born Estela Bravo, �Quien Soy Yo?� (Who Am I?), tells the story of the children of �disappeared� parents in Argentina, who were seized with their parents or born in concentration camps and later illegally adopted by military families during the 1976-1983 junta regime. Thanks to the work of non-governmental organizations, almost 90 children of an estimated 500 kidnapped have been found so far. The movie presents the stories of young people in search of a lost identity, having to struggle with their painful past.

Israeli director Tamar Yarom's film �To See If I'm Smiling� shows the situation of six young women who during their two years of mandatory military service in the West Bank and Gaza Strip experience a new dimension of Israeli-Palestinian relations. The interviews in which the women speak not only about the situation of women in the army, but also about their own moral dilemmas concerning the Israeli approach towards Palestinians at checkpoints, are complemented with both archival footage and personal material. The film illustrates both how the trauma of war alters personalities and analyzes the problem of power abuse, presenting examples of girls posing for a photo next to a Palestinian corpse or stripping a man to his underwear and beating him.

The BBC's contribution

"I am operating on people's thoughts and feelings, and if something goes wrong I can destroy that person's character forever," says Dr. Henry Marsh, a British brain surgeon whose story inspired Geoffrey Smith to direct a movie within the BBC Storyville project. When Marsh first visited a hospital in Kiev in 1992, he found the medical conditions absolutely appalling. Since then he has been spending his holidays working 18 hours a day with his Ukrainian protege Igor Petrovich to create a viable clinic and help desperate people in any possible way. (When anesthetic is too risky and the patient is kept awake, a hole is drilled through his skull with a second-hand household drill.)

The film is not only moving, but also humorous, which, according to Smith, best shows what makes Ukrainian society special. The original soundtrack was composed and performed by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. �They just fell in love with the film and ended up saying how much of an honor it was to be part of it. It is understated music, the right sort of music for the film,� said the director.

The editor of the BBC Storyville project, Nick Fraser, will be present in Istanbul to conduct master class workshops, consisting of film screenings and panel discussions. On July 12 and 13 Fraser will not only explain the concept of Storyville, but also of the �Why Democracy?� project, considered to be the most ambitious documentary series ever undertaken, encompassing documentary directors from China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Liberia, Egypt, Denmark, Russia, Bolivia and the United States.

Enrollment for the master class event takes place via email: info@documentar-ist.org

For more information see: www.documentar-ist.org

Inform,07.07.08