Documentarist – Istanbul Documentary Days was organized successfully for the second time this year between 2^nd and 7^th of June, 2009. An independent initiative run by a group of young documentary filmmakers, the Documentarist aims to support creative documentary filmmaking and bring important examples of the genre to Istanbul, for in Turkey, documentary films find very little chance of screening, even at festivals. The festival’s focus is on the new generation of filmmakers and film students, yet some classics of the genre also appear in its programme.

The festival is organized by Eurasia Art Collective (ASK) – a non-governmental organization working for international cultural communication by organizing festivals and art events. Necati Sönmez and Emel Çelebi, from the organizing committee of the festival, answering the questions of Film International, point out that the festival’s main aim is to meet with national and international documentary makers and exchange experiences. It also seeks to create a bridge between new generation independent documentary workers, who are not connected with any TV channels, and producers / festival organizers who come from abroad.

As Sönmez and Çelebi underline, the festival was first organized in 2008 with a very small support package from Ä°stanbul 2010 and the Turkish Ministry of Culture. In response to the positive feedback that the festival received, in the second year they prepared a bigger programme, yet this time neither Ä°stanbul 2010 nor the Turkish Ministry of Culture gave any support. Despite that the festival has been a success thanks to volunteers and personal contributions as well as the support of the private sector and foreign consulates. Apparently, the way it was organized has contributed to the independent character of the festival, such as hosting guests in the houses of the organizers.

Sönmez and Çelebi underline that in the first year of the festival, the numbers attending surprised them, and this year there was even bigger interest - three times more people than last year. This year films have been screened in six different saloons and were shown from 35 mm prints.

At this year’s festival, there was a special section on Finnish cinema and Likka Vehkalahti from Finnish State Television YLE gave a master class. This event – as well as the talk given by Hussain Currimbhoy, the coordinator of the Sheffield Film Festival – was the highlight of the festival.

In this year’s festival, the documentary classic People on Sunday (1929) by Robert Siodmak was screened for the first time in Turkey. Sonmez and Çelebi remark that documentaries such as Cine-Train (a documentary by the members of the Cine-Train workshop, 2008) which was shown only ten days after its screening at Cannes; The Heart of Jenin (Leon Geller, Marcus Vetter; 2008) which received many awards after its screening at Documentarist; Flower Bridge (Thomas Ciulei, 2008); and Blind Lover (Juraj Lehotsky; 2008) were all films that they would expect to be snapped up by bigger festivals, leaving no chance of inclusion in their festival’s programme. Yet they also underline that to catch this sort of films and share them with the audience is why Documentarist exists.

Also in the “Best of Fests” section of the festival the following films attracted a great deal of attention: The Inheritors by Eugenio Polgovsky (2008), a silent documentary film depicting the hard lives of child labourers in Mexico; and Burma VJ -Reporting from a Closed Country by Anders Østergaard (2008), about the undercover video journalists who reported on the monk rebellion in Rangoon against Burma’s tyrannical regime.

In the “Focus Finland” section of the festival, Revolution (Jouko Aaltonen, 2006) a Finnish musical documentary on the agit-prop music bands in 1960s Finland that sang about socialist ideals was a journey both in time and place. In a country like Turkey, where music has always been an important medium through which to give social messages, this film raised questions about the thin line between art with social consciousness, and art bordering on kitsch with too many messages loaded onto it. Another interesting documentary of this section was Gracious Curves by Kiti Luostarinen (1997) – a brave meditation on our narcissistic and patriarchal generation’s obsession with the so-called ideal female appearance. In this personal documentary, Luostarinen makes use of around 50 women’s experiences about their body through changes from infancy into adolescence, pregnancy and aging. At times provocative in portraying the self-damage that women surrender to in the name of a patriarchal society’s values of beauty, this film provided a great opportunity for the male viewers, as well as the female ones, to think about perceptions of body and beauty.

Grozny Dreaming (2008) by Mario Casella and Fulvio Mariani, shown in the “International Panorama” section of the festival, is the story of a chamber orchestra and its conductor consisting of musicians from various republics of the Caucasus with a dream to tour this conflict-torn region. The aim of the group is to show to the world that peaceful coexistence is possible; the last stop of the tour is a concert in Grozny. This documentary elegantly brings together the landscapes of the Caucasus with a music full of passion, and gave the Turkish audience an opportunity to think about their neighbours and what can be done to contribute to peace in that area. Also shown in this section: Hair India (2008) by R. Brunetti and M. Leopardi, an absorbing documentary on the international industry of trading long, dark strands of Indian hair that are donated to temples and, through a complicated network, sometimes end up in Hollywood mansions; The Damned of the Sea (2008) by Jawad Rhalib, on Moroccan fishermen’s struggle of survival against European fishing companies in their own waters, which offered insights into the struggles of the lives of those neglected by a West-centric worldview.

The festival also included a section entitled “National Showcase Selected by SIYAD,” where documentaries such as The Wound of Gaza (2009) by Necati Sönmez and A. Al-Ghoul, Prison N. 5 (2009) by Çayan Demirel and many others selected by the Turkish Film Critics Association were screened.

This gathering of documentary films from all around the world made it possible to see the lives of others – albeit on the other end of the world at a time when the idea of globalization is becoming more and more relevant. These documentaries contribute more than anything else to the mutual acknowledgement and understanding of other people’s battles against the same power structure. We can only thank Documentarist for creating such an opportunity for Turkish people and hope the governmental institutions will soon appreciate its importance, and give the necessary support for the coming years of the festival.

Contributor details
N. Buket Cengiz writes on popular culture in the national newspaper Radikal's Sunday supplement, Radikal Ä°ki.