Short Films on the Topics of Displacement

The 7th Which Human Rights Festival by Documentarist Istanbul is screening a selection of short films around the topic displacement.     

Within the frame of the human rights film festival Hangi Insan haklari? (Which human rights) –  taking place in Istanbul from December 5th to December 9th – documentarist is presenting a selction of films produced within a workshop series organized by the InEnArt team in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut under the title Searching Traces.

Searching Traces is an ongoing workshop series conducted for the first time in 2014 and aimed at forced migrants who are living in Istanbul and young filmmakers from Turkey and other countries who are as well based in Istanbul. In Summer 2015 the film group moved to the topic Chance of Diversity. Turkish and international young filmmakers joined, all together they produced in a more fictional way the attempt to cope with displacement and relocation.

It’s focus was documentary film-making, preferably with very accessible equipment such as smartphones or small cameras. The films originated circle around the topic of displacement in both documentary and more narrative styles.
In a follow-up workshop under the title Chance of Diversity, a team of turkish and international filmmakers re-explored the topic from mutltiple perspectives, trying to engage, this time, a more fictional form of film-making.

This workshop designed by Sabine Küper-Büsch and Thomas Büsch in cooperation with others was a continuation of a workshop series with migrants and citizens of Istanbul inaugurated successfully in December 2014 providing the participants with basic shooting techniques to express their stories and to reflect their personal experiences and their living environment. The projects’ aim is to open opportunityies to look back on and reappraise someones experiences in order to find new perspectives in a life of exile.

Mocies produced during the workshop will be displayed as well on InEnArt’s interactive video-platform StreetWalking. Streetwalking, as InEnArt, is an open platform, and aims to produce a narration from plenty of views. Participants can convey their impression of their surroundings – in the literal sense as well as politically – using the medium film.

Short films to be presented during the discussion: “Beyond the Station”, “Instable”, “This is Why…”, “Hayalet (Ghost)” and “Humus Connection in Istanbul”.

The screening will take place on Sunday, on December 6 at 2 pm in SALT Galata. Participants are Mohammad Fares, Nadine al Lahham, Nazlı Mayuk, Shadi Abou Karam, Katharina Weithaler, Sabine Küper-Büsch, Thomas Büsch.. The admission (as for the entire festival) is free.