Sharjah Film Platform will organise a programme of Turkish women filmmakers moderated by Müge Turan, Film Curator at Istanbul Modern, on November 26.
Sharjah Art Foundation and Turkey’s first museum of modern and contemporary art Istanbul Modern have signed a multi-year partnership with a new film initiative at the fourth edition of Sharjah Film Platform.
Reflecting the commitment to film programming at both institutions, this partnership will explore new avenues of exchange between SAF and Istanbul Modern while creating opportunities that advance regional filmmaking and cinema.
The first part of this collaboration, titled Her Journey, will screen at Sharjah Film Platform 4. Her Journey is curated by Müge Turan, Film Curator at Istanbul Modern and includes 10 films from Turkey by women directors focusing on women’s subjectivities that are fragmentary, multiple, contradictory and in constant flux. Highlighting both the diversity and intersectionality of identities, these women-centric stories—three feature-length films, two documentaries and five shorts—give viewers characters that shimmer with life and passion, while reflecting historical and cultural pressures. Exploring various representations of female subjectivity and even suggesting provocative models of cinematic resistance, the 10 films in Her Journey prove the truth of the well-known feminist slogan, ‘the personal is political’.
In 2022, Sharjah Art Foundation will curate a second film programme at Istanbul Modern. Additional details will be announced soon.
Running from November 19 to 27, 2021, Sharjah Film Platform 4 features a film programme of over 50 short and feature-length films in the narrative, documentary and experimental genres. The festival also includes a public programme of talks and workshops led by renowned filmmakers, and the SFP Industry Hub, an industry-focused professional programme that supports the production and distribution of films.
The films in Her Journey programme includes Ghosts by Azra Deniz Okyay (Narrative Feature), Sibel, directed by Çağla Zencirci, Guillaume Giovanetti (Narrative Feature), Something Useful by Pelin Esmer (Narrative Feature), The Great Istanbul Depression by Zeynep Dilan Süren (Narrative Short), #21xoxo, directed by Imge Özbilge, Sine Özbilge (Narrative Short), My Sister by Burcu Aykar (Narrative Short), Witch Trilogy, directed by Ceylan Özgün Özçelik (Narrative Short), CemileSezgin by Aylin Kuryel, Raşel Meseri (Documentary Short), Amina, directed by Kıvılcım Akay (Documentary Feature), and Women’s Country by Şirin Bahar Demirel (Documentary Feature).
The SFP4 Talks Programme, held in conjunction with SFP4, will host a conversation titled Contemporary Turkish Cinema Through the Female Lens on November 26.
Turkish cinema has experienced a revival in recent years with women directors increasingly at the helm of bold and visionary storytelling. In conjunction with the screening programme, Her Journey, curated by Istanbul Modern for the fourth edition of Sharjah Film Platform, this panel discussion brings together women filmmakers who are making waves in Turkey’s film scene. Against the backdrop of long-standing gender imbalances in the film industry globally, how are women in Turkey reclaiming the lens through which women’s experiences are written and portrayed? What are their unique pathways to visibility and success? This session spotlights the rich diversity of female-centred stories in documentary and narrative filmmaking in Turkey and how women’s lives, their struggles, dreams and triumphs, are being brought to the big screen.
The speakers includes Kıvılcım Akay, Şirin Bahar Demirel, Azra Deniz Okyay, Pelin Esmer and Cagla Zencirci.
