Author: Şirin Fulya Erensoy

 

For this episode of Chromatic Wednesdays, four short films were selected around the theme of Mythology. The films featured not only draw on mythic narratives, but create their own. Using humor, irony, monsters, found footage, and mythic stories, they unravel the manipulative nature of myths as they incorporate them into their cinematic work to form enigmas to be deciphered again.

Selection:

  • «Lake of Fire» by NEOZOON (2022, Germany, 11 min, English)
  • «A Demonstration» by Sasha Litvintseva and Beny Wagner (2020, Germany/ Netherlands/ United Kingdom, 25 minutes, English)
  • «Müjdeler Var Yurdumun Toprağına Taşına, Erdi Sinemam 100 Şeref Yaşına!» («We Bear Good News for Our Beloved Country, Our Cinema Is Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary!») by Hakkı Kurtuluş and Melik Saraçoğlu (2015, Turkey, 22 minutes, Turkish with English subtitles)
  • «On this shore, here» by Jasmina Metwaly (2022, Germany/ Belgium/ France, 23 minutes, English)
    The screening was followed by a Q&A session Jasmina Metwaly, Hakkı Kurtuluş and Melik Saraçoğlu, moderated by Şirin Fulya Erensoy.

To watch episode, please visit: https://youtube.com/live/KCM-NPeBQEQ

Images from the Q&A session following screenings of «A Letter from Raqqa» (2020, Arash Asadi) and «The Other Side of the River» (2021, Antonia Kilian). 

In the Kurdish struggle for freedom, resistance at the intersection of grassroots democracy and feminism has largely empowered the Autonomous Administration of Northern and Eastern Syria, known as Rojava, to assume authority over the fighting powers in the region. The short film «A Letter from Raqqa» and the feature-length documentary «The Other Side of the River» by Antonia Kilian and Arash Asadi, dealing with the dreams, memories and realities within revolution and war, were shot in this region. 

Watch the Q&A session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh4bDuf9l2Q 

For the latest of #CinemaofCommoning blog post, writer and curator Rachel Pronger reflects on TACTICS FOR A TRANSNATIONAL ARCHIVE, a weekend of workshops exploring transnational archiving and creative practice that took place earlier this year.
The sessions were organized by artist Beth Hughes who invited four experts — filmmaker Nnenna Onuoha, artist Dominique Hurth, researcher Şirin Fulya Erensoy and filmmaker Mohammad Shawky Hassan. 

Read about this collective interrogation of archival practices and politics here:
https://cinemaofcommoning.com/2023/03/19/tactics-for-a-transnational-archive/

In January 2023, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, the cinema project by bi’bak, re-opens its doors at a newly renovated space in Berlin-Wedding. A physical hub that brings together film and video culture, arts, education, conversation and community, SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA explores transnational society through screenings, symposia and exhibitions.
Over the years, bi’bak has built up an archive of books, magazines, ephemera and films (analog and digital), a collection that will now become part of KIRAATHANE. A term with Arabic/Persian origins meaning “house of reading” that in modern Turkish more commonly refers to tea houses, KIRAATHANE extends the SİNEMA foyer, aiming to be a welcoming, publicly accessible place where people can access knowledge, read, watch and exchange.
SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA now calls on filmmakers, cineastes, archivists, students, artists, locals and scholars to take part in the first KIRAATHANE workshop, a collective interrogation of archival practices and politics in relation to film and moving image. 
Over the course of the first weekend in February, four invited experts – Nnenna Onuoha, Dominique Hurth, Şirin Fulya Erensoy and Mohammad Shawky Hassan – will host a series of short sessions giving an insight into their own work with archives. Alongside selected open call participants, through various modes of exchange we will come together to ask:
What is archived, how, and for whom? What tactics can be employed to ensure that KIRAATHANE, and archives in general, reflect the transnational societies to which they belong? How can archives serve the communities within which they are embedded?

Apply to the open call here: https://forms.gle/CdAtPWk8top18xhKA

For more information go to https://sinematranstopia.com/en/hane/kiraathane/workshop-tactics-for-a-transnational-archive

On 9 November 2022, the screening of the film Anatolian Leopard took place at Apartment Project in the context of the Chromatic Wednesdays event series (funded by the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe). The film premiered in 2021 at the Toronto International Film Festival, receiving the FIPRESCI Award. The screening was followed by a Q&A session with director Emre Kayiş that I moderated. 

My colleague and friend Julia Lazarus and I have curated a special selection of short films and TikTok videos on everyday feminisms for the second edition of Hive International Short Film Days.

Women confront structures of oppression in all aspects of life. The seeming invisibility of the patriarchal ideology is put into question by the filmmakers of this selection, as they take control of their own narratives, images and means of production. By engaging documentary form with newer online formats such as TIKTOK, we hope to explore the diverse modes of expression through audio-visual means.

 

Join us for the screening and discussion on September 10, 5 pm at Kunstfabrik A. Flutgraben.

For details on the program and how to get your tickets, please visit the website of the event: https://www.hivefilmdays.com

The schedule for the European Network for Cinema and Media Studies has been announced. Set to take place 22-26 June 2022 in Bucharest, Romania, this year’s conference title is  “Epistemic Media: Atlas, Archive and Network”. I will be presenting research from my current project VIDEOACT. My presentation titled “Playful Activism of Online Mash-Up Videos: Political Critique through Satire” will examine the online political mash-up videos of a new wave migrant from Turkey to Germany. The analysis will explore the ways in which the online political mash-up is used as a form of citizen engagement, advancing new political narratives, by critically transforming media content so as to ridicule and subvert the government discourses and media workings. The presentation will take place at the Politehnica University of Bucharest, on June 25, 2022, at 16:15. 
 

Here is the programme for this year’s NECS conference: 

https://necs.org/conference/program-2022/

Les écrans turcophones, edited by Kristian Feigelson and Mehmet Öztürk is out and can be purchased via the publishing house Presses Universitaires du Septentrion’s website:  https://www.septentrion.com/FR/livre/?GCOI=27574100911660

The book is a comprehensive overview, looking at the developments in the cinematic landscape of Turkey’s cinema from the 2000s onwards. My contribution relates to Turkey’s comedy films, where a chronological outline of the genre draws parallels with the socio-political context of Turkey and
how certain events have had an effect on particular narratives and characterizations. The chapter also discusses box office results in order to understand the type of stories that draw Turkish audiences to the cinema.

The program for the online conference New Creative Praxis in Film and Television: Hybrid Futures of Gender Equality has been announced. The conference will be held on May 6-7, 2022, with keynotes from award-winning filmmakers, scholars, and educators C.A. Griffith (Arizona State University) & Karen Pearlman (Macquarie University).

For detailed information on the program and registration, please go to the conference webpage: https://ftvconference.bilgi.edu.tr/en/creativepraxis/

In the new edition of Chromatic Wednesdays, held in cooperation with «Twister», an exhibition project at the neue Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst  nGbK, 26 February – 30 April 2022) , a panel looking at the experiences of oppression and censorship by authoritarian regimes that oppose non-normative gender and sexualities was held. The LGBTQI+ artist Amina Maher offered insights into how artists use artistic expression to overcome normative discourses, and how creativity can serve as a form of survival that provides hope for real and lasting change. 
Maher’s film «Letter to My Mother» is an autobiographical short documentary, in which she intimately addresses her trauma of sexual violence. It explores feelings of shame, fear, and guilt, using the medium film as a tool for healing and understanding. The formal and stylistic choices embrace both a radically intimate perspective and the exposure of social taboos, pushing the boundaries of film to achieve a cathartic and emancipatory experience. 
Following the screening, Maher talked about the production of the film and its thematization of self-exploration, family politics, and trauma therapy. In conversation with Şirin Fulya Erensoy, she also shared her experiences as a refugee fleeing political persecution in Iran and the realities of life as a trans woman in Berlin.

For more information on Chromatic Wednesdays: http://berlin.apartmentproject.org/chromatic-wednesdays-en/

For more information on the Twister exhibition: https://ngbk.de/en/show/685/twister 

To listen to the entire panel, please click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1t_ojQThGn0