Nazli (left) and Selin (right)

Two young DIY media-makers from Turkey, Akile Nazli Kaya (31) and Selin Gunduz (21), are ready to participate IDFA 2011 next week as part of the Doc Next filmmakers group that will take part in the IDFAcademy and all related events. Nazli’s film “Ebb and Tide” is among the ten short Doc Next documentaries that will be screened at IDFA 2011 prior to the feature length films. Two other films from Turkey, “Ece’esque” (dir. Ozge Yesilcimen, Bora Balbey, Bade Selcuk, Caner Kececi) and “Dear Brother Sakir” (dir. Bahar Demirkan, Okyar Igli, Hayati Kose and Morteza Moghaddam), which were made during Youth MODE Workshops, will be screened at IDFA’s Doc Next Mini Cinema section featuring continual screenings of a selection from the Doc Next Media Collection.

Nazli is an awarded animator/director/designer working and studying in Prague. Nazli’s productions focus on important themes such as immigration, food security and personal freedom. Her biggest ambition in life is to make creative, innovative and inspiring short animated films and documentaries that address social and environmental issues. Her dream is to open an animation studio in Prague and Istanbul that will create socially and environmentally concerned ‘green’ films.” Her film in IDFA 2011 program “Ebb and Tide“ is about a young woman reading from her diaries about her life in the Czech Republic while showing the life of her parents, who also temporarily immigrated to another country. As an interpretation of home videos made on S8, the film’s emotionally charged story challenges the existing imagery of Turkish people living in Europe. Nazli’s awarded animation documenaries “Zlin Soup” and “Nazli in Zlin” are also in the Doc Next Media Collection. She is currently working on a new ‘green’ film “The Seed”.

Selin is an aspiring DIY filmmaker with tremendous self-motivation. She did not attend university nor did she receive formal media education, but she pushes herself to learn more about filmmaking, screenwriting, photography and acting by attending certificate programs, workshops and seminars. Selin participated the Youth MODE Documentary Workshop in Canakkale last year and made the film “Sounds and Shadows“, also included in the Doc Next Media Collection,
with fellow workshop participants Erkan Atay, Ahmet Turan and Alper Dutkin. “To me, filmmaking is not a temporary interest. It has captured me completely. I want to build my life on it, I am saving money by working other jobs in order to make films and also to attend screenings and other film related events,” says Selin, who now works on the script for her new short film and is preparing a documentary on internet censorship in Turkey.

We wish both ladies the best of time at IDFAcademy and we are also very excited to be joining them in Amsterdam next week!

Click here to read more about the IDFAcademy participants and program.

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