Documentary Workshop

Kars, 9-15 November 2007

DocuTravel is the Documentary Workshop of the Festival of European Films on Wheels’ in Kars. It is an intensive one-week program for young film and media students from Turkey and Georgia. During the workshop, participants will work with experienced tutors and documentary filmmakers. DocuTraveler will be held between November 9-15 in the historic town of Kars in eastern Anatolia. The resulting documentaries will be featured in a special screening on November 15th, before the Closing Ceremony of the Festival.

DocuTravel introduces film and media students from Turkey and Georgia to the world of documentary filmmaking in a warm and professional environment. Using digital cameras, each group of participants will plan, write, shoot, edit and produce a short documentary film on Kars. Topics that will be covered during the workshop include how to pitch story ideas, story development, interview tips, and ethics in documentary filmmaking. Under the guidance of documentary filmmakers and tutors from both countries, participants will improve their skills and experience different challenges in filmmaking. The workshop emphasizes the importance of documentary as an art form and cross-cultural exploration.

DocuTravel is a unique program that gives opportunity to share experiences between film and media students from different countries, while exploring the power of documentary and the city of Kars. During the workshop, the participants will also be introduced new trends in documentary filmmaking. While producing documentary films focusing on Kars, the participants will concentrate on themes such as ‘city’, ‘people’, ‘culture’ and ‘heritage’. Each group will aim at providing alternatives to traditional and commercial documentary filmmaking.

Program:
Participants will work in teams to produce actual documentaries. Tutors will provide critical feedback to each team during the filmmaking process:

Day One: Exploring the city, discussing ideas, detailing final script
Days Two-Five: Shooting and editing
Day Six: Editing and Post-production
Day Seven: Screening of the workshop documentaries

Participants will also have chance to attend screenings of Festival of European Films on Wheels.

Participants:
Bilkent University, Gazi University, Shota Rustaveli Georgian State University of Theatre and Film, Diyarbakir-Mardin team

Tutors:
Levan Khetaguri (Vice-Rector of Shota Rustaveli Georgian State University of Theatre and Film, director), Andreas Treske (Bilkent University, Head of Communication and Design Department, director and editor), Ahmet Gürata (Bilkent University)

For more information: http://www.europeanfilmfestival.com

 

Duygu Sandikli (Participant): 13th Festival of European Films, Festival on Wheels 2007

The Festival of European Films was implemented firstly in 1995 in order to get the cinema lovers in the different cities of Turkey and the important examples of the European and the Turkish films together.

These kinds of cultural activities was created in the big cities such as İstanbul and Ankara and the other people lost to see these kinds of activities in the small cities of Turkey. The Festival of European Films implemented it’s representation in Ankara, İstanbul, İzmir, Bursa, Eskişehir, Gaziantep, Kars, Kayseri, Malatya, Mersin, Van, Çanakkale in the last ten years. Every year, in the festival there are almost 25 long, 70 short length films are shown, “Europe Europe”, The Best of Europe, the collective notation and the colloquy with the professional movie makers are the parts of the festival. Another aim of the festival is, get the Turkish and Foreign cinema makers together in order to make contribution to their association. The most importantly, The Festival European Films is the first and only film festival that accepted to the European Film Festival Coordination.

The stations of the festival which created by Ankara Association for Cinema was Kars, Samsun and Sarajevo. Festival on Wheels, after the 2 and 8 November of 2007, moved to Kars from Ankara and eventuated in Kars between 9 and 15 November of 2007. Bilkent University, Department Chair of Communication and Design Department Andreas Treske, the member of the university Ahmet Gürata and the grad student Koray Löker attended to the festival. Also our Communication and Design Department’s students Duygu Sandıklılı and Sinem Zülal Çetin attended to the festival in order to shoot a documentary about Kars. Our students and the students of Gazi University, Communication Department, worked for 7 days for the Docutravel project which’s name is “Kars…a’day”. The project drew long applause. The public of Kars showed an interest to the free of charge notations and the colloquy. Many cinema students and many independent assemblages for cinema adhered to the festival.

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