Author: Şirin Fulya Erensoy

In July 2024, I conducted a 2-day workshop at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, in the context of the Cultures d’Avenir programme. The Cultures d’Avenir project is initiated by Centre Pompidou and La Gaîté Lyrique in Paris, Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) in Berlin and Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB). Through a series of workshops and activities, the programme invites young film-makers and audio-visual artists to rethink how artistic practices address and intersect with societal issues and how art and culture can play a role in approaching global contemporary challenges.

My workshop was entitled Urban Reverberations: Exploring City Symphonies in the 21st Century – A Cinematic Workshop in Berlin. Set against Berlin’s unique history of destruction, reconstruction, division, and reunification, the workshop explored the question: What does a city symphony look like in the 21st century? Participating students received a brief historical overview of city symphonies, examining diverse representations of urbanity, transformation, daily life, embodied subjectivities, and historical contexts. Following a brainstorming session, either independently or in groups, the participating students used their mobile phones to create their own short city symphonies. This hands-on experience involved experimenting with various cinematic techniques like interviews, montage, and observational shots. The objective was to explore how these contemporary information and communication technologies shape our connection with the city, including its history, architecture, rhythm, and inhabitants. The outcome showed diverse narratives encapsulating the city experience in a short-form format.

In May 2024, in collaboration with the Spore Initiative, we showed four short documentaries on ecology and activism. The films were accompanied by brief virtual messages from the filmmakers, offering insights into their films, the depicted struggles, their perspectives on eco-cinema, and potential avenues for more ecological filmmaking practices. Following the screening, a discussion was held with Berlin-based choreographer, dancer and curator Martha Hincapié Charry and Lisa Hoffman from the open, autonomous and transdisciplinary collective Klasse Klima.

The documentaries in the screening program show the catastrophic effects of profit-oriented interventions on ecosystems, climate and water on the one hand, and the fight against environmental destruction and possible solutions on the other. The films also illustrate the role of documentary film as a possible instrument of ecological activism and as a medium through which we can gain insights into our collective struggles. What unites the people and communities portrayed in the films shown is the conviction that nature is not an inexhaustible supply of resources and that they question the promise of limitless growth and prosperity.  

The selected films show different places, themes and use different sub-genres of documentary film. We are showing an observational documentary that shows the defense of the land and water against hydroelectric dams and mining in Honduras and Guatemala; a documentary portrait that illustrates the energy crisis in Lebanon and a community’s creative resistance to it; a video essay that examines the impact of mega-construction projects in Istanbul on the environment and the people living there and shows emerging alliances between activists and local communities. Our fourth film is a manifesto-like call to action that combines music and poetry to create Afrofuturist, activist performance art. 

The Films:
Two Rivers, 2023
Directed by Anaïs Taracena & Laura Bermúdez, 44 minutes
Honduras/Guatemala
Language: Spanish and Q’eqchi’

30 Days of Sun, 2023
Directed by Jude Chehab, 12 minutes
Lebanon
Language: Arabic

All the Forests of the World are Zones to Defend, 2019
Directed by Julia Lazarus, 18 minutes
Turkey/Germany
Language: Turkish

Terra Mater, 2023
Directed by Kantarama Gahigiri, 10 minutes
Language: English / Swahili
Rwanda/Switzerland

For more information, see event webpage: https://spore-initiative.org/en/programming/participate/okologische-widerstandigkeit-im-film-mai

Following the screening, a 4-hour workshop on video activism, tailored for environmental advocacy, was held. Facilitated by video activist, documentary filmmaker and artist Özlem Sarıyıldız, it aimed to balance theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and interactive elements by engaging  participants of varied experiences and backgrounds. The goal was to empower participants with the essential tools for effectively using the camera as a potent tool for documenting, advocating, and disseminating environmental justice struggles. The workshop provided numerous examples of videos used for environmental activism to serve as practical guides. Moreover, the workshop sought to explore how films can be employed to activate conversations and foster dialogues on issues that affect us collectively.

I joined this two-day workshop organized by Einstein Fellow Pınar Yıldız and contributed with a presentation entitled Migration and Identity: Feminist Perspectives in Contemporary Turkish-German Documentaries. For more details on the workshop: please visit: http://www.cinepoetics.fu-berlin.de/en/activities/workshops/2024-01-25-26-ws/index.html 

Happy to be part of this impressive collection on radical film, art, and digital media for ‘societies in turmoil’. I’ve written a chapter on LGBTI+ activism inspired by a video shot by Fatoş Erdoğan during the Istanbul Pride March 2021. The simple outcry, ‘Why can’t I walk in my own country?’, became a vital piece of resistance against stigmatizing narratives that criminalise members of queer and LGBTI+ communities. The chapter is available to read on Zenodo: https://zenodo.org/records/10049625. You can also order the book from the publisher here: https://k-verlag.org/books/radical-film-2023/

10 November – 2 December 2023
Friday -Saturday, 15-19h

“Bakma” (Don’t look!), was a police announcement that echoed through the squares of Ankara and Istanbul during protests from the mid-90s to the uprising in 2013. bak.ma video archiving collective takes its name from this command, but stands in stark opposition to the ongoing state oppression and censorship that ‘don’t look’ demands of us.

bak.ma started following the massive urban protests in 2013 known as the Gezi Uprising, since then the archive collection has expanded to cover political events and movements in Turkey from the 1960s to today. Its collections implicitly reveals what is missing from the archives in Turkey, where audiovisual archival material belonging to the invisible, silenced, and oppressed parties of dissent has otherwise remained unarchivable.

bak.ma has been in residence at AGIT since May 2023. During this period, they reanimated the archive by curating a series of both old collections and digitising new ones, as well as hosting public events that brought together contributors, users, and allies. By collectively sharing knowledge and memories, the residency has served as a space of empowerment to further radicalise the politics of the collection and expand the possibilities of creating a living memory of social movements.

Don’t look! will relocate the online archival footage of bak.ma to the physical space of AGIT to further develop these connections and encounters. The exhibition showcases key aspects from bak.ma’s archive including newly digitised material of video-activists, as well as older footage from the workers movements in Turkey. 

These photos were taken during the opening of the exhibition

What kind of curatorial practices do we need to connect with each other across time and geography and to form persistent, transglobal networks? Which curatorial practices challenge prejudices and expectations so that we can establish discursive and creative spaces for women* and negotiate the complex relational webs with institutions, artists, and audiences? How do we advocate for the inclusion of women* artists and other silenced voices without essentializing their identities? Join our workshop as we explore curatorial endeavors that defy predefined frameworks, and challenge curatorial norms and knowledge production. Engaging with vulnerable communities demands sincere care and collaborative efforts and dialogue. During the workshop, we will delve into strategies that aim to transcend traditional curatorial norms through the discussion of concrete examples, where emphasis is placed on decentralizing the curatorial process, transforming the ethics of collaboration between institutions, artists, and curators. With all their complexity, contradictions, and power, join us to redefine curatorial practice, amplify diverse voices, foster a culture of care, and preserve feminist curatorial legacies.

Photos taken during the workshop by Özlem Sarıyıldız.

It was an absolute delight to give this workshop in the context of the Hive International Short Film Days. The workshop delved into audio-visual media’s historical and contemporary use for political activism. From early film history to today’s protest movements, filmmakers have employed audio-visuality to convey political messages. The workshop examined the role of activist videos in challenging mainstream narratives, amplifying marginalized voices, and reshaping power dynamics. The workshop also addressed strategic video approaches, ethical considerations in documenting protests, and empowering individuals captured on camera. Participants with a background in filming or photographing protest scenarios participated and shared their insights, making the workshop a participatory exploration at the intersection of media, activism, and change.

Here are some Instagram posts from the workshop shared by colleagues and friends!

Happy to share my new article ‘Experiences of migration from Turkey to Germany: the female guest worker in contemporary documentaries’ published in Studies for Documentary Film (it’s open access!): https://doi.org/10.1080/17503280.2023.2253574