Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto)censorship

Doubts

11 min. / 2024 / Turkish (with English subtitles)
Text, video, editing and photographs Fırat Yücel
Camera Enis Köstepen, Fırat Yücel

Doubts is a ‘desktop thriller’ reflecting the editing process of a documentary on Gezi Resistance; it’s also a prologue to “Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto)Censorship”. It centers around a hypothetical text exchange between fictional characters who, years later, plan to make a documentary about the Gezi Resistance using available footage. Set in a time when filmmakers face imprisonment even for films they didn’t make, the film explores how the government’s “documentaphobia” impacts documentary-makers.

Fırat Yücel is one of the co-founders of Altyazı Monthly Cinema Magazine. Currently, he’s working as the editor of Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema, focusing on freedom of expression in filmmaking. In addition to being a critic, he continues his documentary practice as a film editor and director. Yücel worked as the co-editor and director of the documentaries Welcome Lenin (2016), Only Blockbusters Left Alive (2016), Audience Emancipated: The Struggle for the Emek Movie Theater (2016), Heads and Tails (2019), March 8, 2020: A Memoir (2023), and Translating Ulysses (2023). He’s a fellow at BAK (basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht) ‘Fellowship for Situated Practice 2023/2024’.

Walls

12 min. / 2024 / Turkish (with English subtitles)
Video Erhan Örs, Hakan Bozyurt, Can Memiş
Editing Erhan Örs
Camera Enes Kılıç, Fırat Yücel
Participants Aysu Baykal, Hakan Bozyurt    

Political prisoners’ struggle for their right to read in prison is portrayed through gloomy images of prison courtyard walls, the revolutionary imagination sparked by books, and the use of shoe polish, jam, and olive paste as substitutes for pens… While also employing the technique of re-enactment, Walls tells the story of a resistance that extends from prison courtyards to courtrooms.

Erhan Örs worked in the production and post-production processes of the film projects by the Mesopotamia Cinema Collective until 2014. He edited numerous documentary and feature films. Since 2015, he has been editing independent feature and documentary films at his company, Vejan Film, which he founded the same year.

Can Memiş received his bachelor’s degrees in Sociology and in Law. He completed his master’s degree in Philosophy and Social Thought at Istanbul Bilgi University. His work centers on pedagogical and methodological approaches to memory curation. He is an art critic and editor at Sanatatak, an independent arts and culture publication.

Hakan Bozyurt is an active member of the Arts and Culture Commission of the Progressive Lawyers Association and continues to pursue his studies at Boğaziçi University, Department of Sociology. In addition to his legal practice, Bozyurt engages in photography and filmmaking.

Altyazı Sinema Derneği’nin Altyazı Fasikül: Özgür Sinema – Görünür Görünmez video serisi ve içerikleri Haklara Destek Programı kapsamında Avrupa Birliği desteği ile hazırlanmıştır. İçeriğinin sorumluluğu üreticilerine ait olup Avrupa Birliği’nin ve/veya Haklara Destek Programı’nın görüşlerini yansıtmamaktadır.

Altyazı Cinema Association’s Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema – Seen Unseen video series and its contents were produced with the support of the European Union through the Haklara Destek Program. The contents are the sole responsibility of video creators and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union and/or the Rights Support Program.