VIDEOACT: The Use of Video as an Activist Tool of Self-Representation for Turkish practitioners in Germany  is a project that has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 101025524. The duration of the project is from September 2021 to August 2023 and is being conducted at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, under the supervision of Professor Jens Eder. 

VIDEOACT examines the use of video as an activist tool by practitioners from Turkey, who have moved to Germany in the post-Gezi era (2013). It aims at contributing to the knowledge of how video can be used to portray social and political issues that have a direct effect on the livelihood of those creating the media. The project will also reveal the ways in which the new context of Germany has impacted the cinematic and artistic explorations of the practitioners. 

VIDEOACT aims to draw a map of the various audio-visual practices employed by this new diaspora from Turkey and analyze the formal, thematic and aesthetic elements they deploy. 

The methodology of the project includes textual analysis of activists’ videos, discourse analyses and interviews. The third-leg of the research project includes the reception of these videos, so as to understand the social impact they may have. Moreover, practice-based research approach will also be developed with the audio material gathered from project participants to create a landscape pertaining to their interweaving stories, paired with imagery representing their experiences. 

The outputs of the project will include journal articles, and conferences where the research results will be shared, as well as screenings, opening up dialogue on the issues raised in the videos. Another output will include a video essay incorporating the narratives of all participant practitioners, interweaved to tell the story of this new wave of migration, through the lens of their audio-visual practices.

For more detailed information on the project, please follow the project website: videoact.eu