‘TALES FROM KARS’ AT THE ROTTERDAM FILM FESTIVAL
‘Tales from Kars’ (‘Kars Öyküleri’), the legacy of the Festival on Wheels script competition, has been selected for the Bright Future section of the Rotterdam Film Festival. The film came about thanks to the committed support of the Festival on Wheels for young filmmakers and will have its world premiere in Rotterdam. .
In 2007, the Ankara Cinema Association held a Short Film Script Competition within the scope of the Festival on Wheels. The aim was to provide young filmmakers with the opportunity to shoot a film with a professional cast and crew. The theme of the competition was ‘Kars’ since the north-eastern city was the main stop of the Festival on Wheels that year. As for the prize, this was to shoot the five best scripts in keeping with the competition theme..
There were more than 100 applications for the Tales of Kars Short Film Script Competition. The Selection Committee, made up of local filmmakers Zeki Demirkubuz, Ümit Ünal and Önder Çakar, chose Özcan Alper’s Moto Guzzi, Zehra Derya Koç’s Ashes (Kül), Ülkü Oktay’s Zilo, Ahu Öztürk’s Open Wound (Açık Yara) and Emre Akay’s A Small Truth (Küçük Bir Hakikat) as the winners, and the scripts were then developed at a workshop led by Zeki Demirkubuz and Cem Yılmaz during the Festival on Wheels in November 2007..
The scripts of the five winning writers were shot as five separate short films, from which Tales of Kars unfolded as a full-length feature film..
Backed by Naif Alibeyoğlu, the former mayor of Kars, the project was shot in and around the province of Kars with a line-up of leading acting talent who volunteered their services in support of the project. Names included Ayda Aksel, Bennu Yıldırımlar, Meral Çetinkaya, Ozan Bilen, Şebnem Köstem, İskender Bağcılar, Erol Babaoğlu, Ahmet Mümtaz Taylan, Necmettin Çobanoğlu, Ruhi Sarı, Müge Ulusoy, Begüm Birgören, Rıza Akın, Rıza Sönmez, Derya Durmaz, Birsu Demir, Berna Adıgüzel and Turgay Tanülkü. On the technical side, Tales of Kars was produced by Gezici Film with Özkan Yılmaz of İşler Prodüksiyon acting as line producer, Özgür Eken as cinematographer, Harika Uygur as cast director, Çiçek Kahraman and Ulaş Cihan Şimşek as film editors, İsmail Karadaş as sound engineer and Natali Yeres as art director. At the post-production stage Fono Film, 1000 Volt, Kalan Müzik and İşler Prodüksiyon all gave their support..
Since receiving post-production support from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Tales of Kars has been selected for the 39th Rotterdam Film Festival. Rotterdam, one of Europe’s oldest and most established festivals, gives emphasis to the first or second films of young filmmakers in its programme to help them gain recognition in the international arena. Tales of Kars will have its world premiere in the Bright Future section of the festival, which runs from 27 January to 7 February.
date : 12.01.2010 | title : NEWS
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Festival on Wheels has changed its route!
The 14th Festival on Wheels, which is organised by the Ankara Cinema Association with the support of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Municipality of Kars, will start its journey on 7 November in Kars and then stop in Artvin from 14-16 November. For the first time in 13 years, the festival won’t stop in Ankara, but invites all cinema and festival-lovers from the capital to Kars instead. The festival will travel beyond the borders of Europe this year, venturing into the new territory of the United States, Mexico, Argentina and India, as well as Germany, Denmark and Sweden closer to home. Audiences will be able to pick from a programme of 156 films, which are spread across the genres of feature, short and documentary.
THE GOLDEN GOOSE COMPETITION THIS YEAR
Ten films which comprise examples of contemporary world cinema will compete once again for the Golden Goose, the Silver Goose and the SİYAD Awards in the Third International Golden Goose Competition. The best film to be determined by the International Jury will win the Golden Goose Award, worth 20,000 Euros, which will be presented by the Municipality of Kars. The film to win the Silver Goose Award, on the other hand, will receive 5,000 Euros.
The spectacular line-up of competition films includes Cloud 9 (Wolke 9), which caused controversy first in Germany, then at other festivals where it screened; Moscow, Belgium (Aanrijding In Moscou), a Belgian film; The Snow (Snijeg), a co-production between Bosnia-Herzegovina, Germany, France and Iran; The Hunger, a memoir of the IRA Hunger Strike in Maze Prison in 1981 under the leadership of Bobby Sands; Lake Tahoe, a Mexican film which won a string of awards in the Berlin, Cannes, Copenhagen and Sundance film festivals; Goran Markovic’s latest film The Tour (Turneja), which earned him a Best Director award at Montreal as well as a Fipresci prize; Three Wise Men by well-known director Mika Kaurismäki and another Mexican production, Rodrigo Pla’s The Desert Within (Desierto Adentro).
Two films from Turkey will also be competing: Semih Kaplanoğlu’s highly anticipated film Milk, which follows the earlier Egg, and Özcan Alper’s first feature film Autumn.
Turkey 2008
The titles making up Turkey 2008 are as follows: My Marlon and Brando directed by Hüseyin Karabey who received Best Director award at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival; Derviş Zaim’s latest feature Dot; Pandora’s Box, written and directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu; Three Monkeys, which brought Nuri Bilge Ceylan the Best Director Award at the 61th Cannes Film Festival, and Seyfi Teoman’s feature Summer Book which has won Turkish cinema a succession of awards this year.
Italian Political Cinema: Elio Petri with support of Itailan Culture Institute
This section, dedicated to Italian political cinema, features two films by Elio Petri: The Working Class Goes to Heaven (La Classe Operaia Va in Paradiso), which won Cannes the Golden Palm Award in 1972, and Possession Is Not Theft (La Proprieta Non é Piu Un Furto). Both films will be screened with the generous contribution of the Italian Cultural Institute.
Nation and Its Fragments
Festival audiences will have the chance to watch Sergei Eisenstein’s 1938 classic Aleksandr Nevsky with a commentary by Murat Belge; Ken Loach’s Ae Fond Kiss (2004) with background from Ferhat Kentel and Lars Von Trier’s Europa with a review by Fatih Özgüven. All three writers frame their reviews in the context of nationalism, the theme of this section. There will also be a panel discussion on ‘Nationalism’ in Kars, which will be attended by Murat Belge, Ferhat Kentel and Mesut Yeğen.
Fake Documentaries: Mockumentary
These films will be shown for the first time in Turkey and although they tell stories that purport to belong to the documentary genre, they are more fictional than fiction itself. For all their fakeness, however, they speak of a surprising number of realities.
Punishment Park directed by Peter Watkins; This is Spinal Tap directed by Rob Reiner and Achero Manas’s November (Noviembre) will reflect the ‘real’ world as represented by fake documentaries on screen.
German Film and Television Academy
This special selection comprises the films Ich Nicht and Der Eine-Der Andere by Wolfgang Petersen, a graduate of Berlin’s German Film and Television Academy (aka ‘The Berlin School’), Hannes Stöhr’s short film Berlin Is In Germany and a selection of short student films made by leading contemporary German directors such as Detlev Buck and Angela Schanelec.
One-Take Films
This section is made up of feature films, medium-length and short films all shot in a single take. The titles will also serve as a basis of discussion for the ‘One-take’ Workshop, a sidebar event taking place during the festival.
Short Is Good and The Video Room
Just one film in the section Short Is Good is set to receive the Short Film Audience Award, worth 1000 Euros, based on the votes of Festival viewers.
Local productions in video format will be available for viewing in the video room, which will be set up with the aim of enabling local and international guests to watch new work coming out of Turkish cinema.
Shortly Romania
Festival on Wheels also has a section allocated to Romania cinema, one of the rising stars of recent years. The section will serve as a showcase of recent short films made in Romania.
In addition, a Romania-Turkey Co-production Panel Discussion will be held during the festival with the participation of Romanian and Turkish producers, directors and cinema institutions.
Children’s Films Latvia / Estonia
Children don’t go forgotten in the festival either… Still, this section features a selection of kids’ films from Latvia and Estonia that have as much appeal for adults as they do for children.
From Liberties To Losses and Afterwards
The eponymous volume, written specifically for the Festival by Tül Akbal, Necla Algan and Ayla Kanbur, focuses on that part of the cinematographic experience which comes with watching films, discussing them critically, writing about them, discussing them again and lecturing on them at schools and other institutions. Here are three academics and colleagues with abundant first-hand experience of both the process and each other.
CINEMA MEETINGS IN KARS
Festival guests from different countries and cultures around the world meet in Kars in order to watch films together, share their experiences and create. The busy program, packed with a variety of events including panel discussions, Q&A sessions, workshops and concerts, will blow the festival wind all over Kars throughout the week.
Gala Premieres
The gala premieres promise to be one of the highlights of the Festival, not only bringing a number of big-name Turkish directors and actors to Kars, but featuring some of the most recent award-winning examples of contemporary Turkish cinema. In this section there are films such as My Marlon and Brando by Hüseyin Karabey, Dot by Derviş Zaim, Pandora’s Box by Yeşim Ustaoğlu, Summer Book by Seyfi Teoman and Three Monkeys by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
International festival agents in Kars!
International festival agents will also be among the guests of the Festival on Wheels this year. Ludmila Cvikova from Rotterdam Film Festival, Freddy Olsson from Göteborg Film Festival and Aude Hesbert from Paris Cinema Festival are coming to Kars to select films for the Turkey sections of their festivals.
Lets Talk Cinema in Kars III Workshop Activities
The ‘Let’s Talk Cinema in Kars’ meetings are held for the third time this year, the point being to bring together amateurs and professionals of the film world for the exchange of experiences and ideas. Film students and cinema lovers from many cities around Turkey will attend a programme of workshops during the week with the best tutors in their fields, as well as taking part in the Let’s Talk Cinema meetings.
Five Different Workshops for Young Film makers
This Festival, there are again several workshops targeting young people from different disciplines and encouraging them to produce joint projects. This year Reha Erdem will give a film direction workshop for three days. Gökhan Tiryaki, the director of photography for Climates and Three Monkeys, will lead a digital cinematography workshop; Natali Yeres, who was art director for Journey to the Sun, A Saint in Laleli, In NowhereLand and Derviş Zaim’s latest film Dot will host a workshop on art direction; Çiçek Kahraman, who edited The Little Doomsday, The Break and Summer Book, will give an editing workshop; Nurşen Bakır, known for her experimental film work, will perform lead a workshop on experimental filmmaking. The workshops are aimed at groups of 10 people.
Cinema classes open to all
In addition to these workshops, a series of cinema classes will also be given within the scope of the Cinema Meetings. Reha Erdem will lead a panel discussion on the experience of film directing and producer Leyla Özalp a discussion on filmmaking. At the same time, Belmin Söylemez, Somnur Vardar and Elvan Kıvılcım of Filmist, whose latest documentary What A Beautiful Democracy? has screened at many festivals in Turkey and abroad, will lead a panel discussion on contemporary documentary making in Turkey. These meetings will be open to everyone.
Briefly Kars in “One Take”
One-Take Workshop
The NISI MASA European Youth Cinema Network, which made a series of short films inspired by Orhan Pamuk’s novel ‘Snow’ at last year’s Festival on Wheels, will also be a guest of the 14th Festival on Wheels with a new filmmaking project. In the scope of the ‘one-take’ workshop, short filmmakers from several European countries will meet in Kars to produce several short films made in a single sequence. The resulting films will be shown within the festival in Kars on 13 November 2008.
Your daily festival newspaper from Nisi Masa
Nisimazine Kars
NISI MASA will lead two workshops at the 14th Festival on Wheels. Young amateur film critics from Turkey and Europe will publish a daily festival newspaper in Kars. Reviews and critiques of the festival films, interviews and articles on the festival sections and guests will be presented in the newspaper, which is designed bilingually in Turkish and English.
Cinema For Peace
The Anatolian Culture will organise a workshop study under the title ‘Cinema For Peace’ with the Corporation of Gyumri City Research Center. Three young filmmakers from each country, namely Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkey, will attend the workshop, which will present examples of pacifist documentary cinema from the contemporary world.
DocuTravel
Now in its second year, the DocuTravel Documentary Workshop targets film students and young documentary makers from Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine and presents short documentaries that seek to explore and gain understanding of the history, culture and current position of Kars. Workshop films is an opportunity for young filmmakers from the same region to meet in the city of Kars and create together. Their output will be shown in Kars on 13 November 2008. The workshop is to be led by tutors from all four countries: Turkey, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine.
Stop Motion Animation Workshop
This year, as in previous years, Dutch animation director Petra Dolleman and her assistant Hasan Cemal Sargın will hold a Stop Motion workshop with primary school students in Kars.
Concerts
Festival evenings in Kars will be galvanised this year by a line-up of glittering live performances. This year’s gigs include names such as Baba Zula, Replikas and Kırıka, as well as several musicians from Hungary.
This year’s Festival poster is illustrated by Behiç Ak and designed by Yeşim Demir as it always has been since the inaugural Festival on Wheels.
Fehmican Gözüm, Mert Kızılay, Ömer Kasımoğlu and Candaş Şişman co-directed the teaser for the Festival.
Visual Repository
You may find visual files for this years selected films, competitors, etc. here.
For more detailed information:
Pınar Evrenosoğlu
Phone: +90 312 466 34 84
E-mail: pinar@festivalonwheels.org
date : 06.11.2009 | title : NEWS
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