TRT Documentary Days May 3–4, 2012

Within the scope of TRT Documentary Days out-of-competition screenings, İstanbul Modern Cinema presents a program of 10 films selected from the winner documentaries of the previous two years in the international category and awarded TRT documentaries. In this fourth year of the TRT Documentary Days, to which 340 films from 41 countries have applied, the aim is to create a platform where quality, creative examples of documentary cinema can come together. Sevilay Tüccar, director of I Have Words to Say and Zeynel A. Elçioğlu, director of Masters of Local Music will meet with the audience following the screening of their films.

DAMASCUS ROOF AND THE TALES OF PARADISE
(SAQF DİMASHQ WA HYKAYAT AL JANNAH), 2010
Qatar | 35mm, Color, 52´ | Arabic
Director: Soudade Kaadan
There’s a rich tradition of storytelling in Syria, fables passed from grandparents to grandchildren, filled with colorful imagery. Associated with 1001 Nights, the storytelling in this film explores aspects of reality and fantasy and mixes them. Within the old city of Damascus, as modernisation changes the familiar landscape of the ancient town, so the danger exists that these stories, cherished and passed down through generations, will vanish amidst the rubble and disruption of the new city taking shape...

ISRAEL VS ISRAEL, 2010
Sweden | 35mm, Color, 58´| English, Arabic, Jewish
Director: Terje Carlsson
Israel vs Israel is a documentary about Jewish peace activists who face skepticism and criticism from their fellow Israeli citizens. A Rabbi, a soldier, a grandmother and an anarchist - four very different Israelis whom share a common goal: to achieve peace in the Middle East and end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories.

LOVESTORIES FROM MOSCOW 1993-2009, 2010
Germany | 35mm, Color, 99´ | Russian, German
Director: Christopher Boekel
In 1993 and then in 2008/2009 director Boekel accompanies with his camera his loved ones in Moscow while also witnessing the social and economic changes that the city has undergone during these fifteen years.

CORRİDOR #8 , 2008
Bulgaria | 35mm, Color, 74´ | Bulgarian, Macedonian
Director: Boris Despodov
Corridor #8 is a mosaic film combining fragments from the everyday lives of the characters who live along a non-existent Balkan road that links Bulgaria, Macedonia and Albania.

I HAVE WORDS TO SAY (SÖYLEYECEKLERİM VAR), 2011
Türkiye | 35mm, Color, 52´ | Turkish, German
Director: Sevilay Tüccar
This documentary is about children of migrant workers in Germany in the mid-1980s, who, in the face of prejudice and exclusion, conveyed their problems through rap music. The film tells the story of how rap with Turkish lyrics was born “underground” in Germany and rose to the surface by moving to Turkey with the group Cartel.

MASTERS OF LOCAL MUSIC
(YÖRESEL MÜZİĞİN USTALARI), 2010
Türkiye | 35mm, Color, 36´ | Turkish
Director: Zeynel A. Elçioğlu
One of the fundamental elements of Anatolia's cultural richness and diversity is music. The diversity of traditional Anatolian music can be seen in the difference both of instruments played in various regions and of regional dialect and melody. This documentary tells the life stories of local artists who are exponents oftraditional Anatolian music.

CATTLE CAMP, 2009
Kyrgyzstan | 35mm, Color, 34´ | Kyrgyz
Director: Alijan Nasirov
This film shows the life of one Kyrgyz family living alone in the mountains at 3,500 meters elevation and minus 40 degrees Celsius. Among domestic animals, only yaks which has become an endangered can survive under such harsh conditions. The film demonstrates how difficult it is to raise and to protect these endangered animals, and how precious each yak is for this family.

WEAPON OF WAR, 2009
The Netherlands | 35mm, Color, 60´ | French
Director: Femke & Ilse van Velsen
In the Democratic Republic of Congo possibly hundreds of thousands of women and girls were brutally raped. Weapon of War takes a harrowing journey to the heart of this crisis. The military perpetrators unveil the hidden motives and strategies of rape as a war crime.

STORY OF A DAY, 2009
Venezuela | 35mm, Color, 89´ | Spanish
Director: Rosana Matecki
Story of a Day begins as an observation of the tranquil existence of farmers living somewhere in rural Latin America.. In this document of a single day, Rosana Matecki tells an abstract story about a random selection of human lives.

THE WOMEN OF BRUKMAN, 2008
Canada | 35mm, Color, 88´ | Spanish
Director: Isaac Isitan
During the 2001 economic collapse in Argentina, the seamstresses at Brukman’s clothing factory took over the operation the owners had abandoned. They reorganized it on a self-management model, without a doubt the most inspiring of the many new economic experiments in that country.