Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform

Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform | Turkish-Armenian Yerevan Workshop

ARMENIA-TURKEY CINEMA PLATFORM

Making Films Together!

2nd SHORT AND DOCUMENTARY DEVELOPMENT WORKSHOP

12-14 July, 2010, Yerevan

INDEX OF PROJECTS

Dede Korkut in Armenia, dir. Gagik Harutyunyan, prod. Karen Gevorgyan, Armenia

Family Tree, dir. /prod. Harut Kbeyan, Armenia

The Puppet Theater, dir. Canay Ozden, prod. Altan Bal, Turkey

A Tour in the Streets of Istanbul, dir./prod. Nigol Bezjian, Lebanon/Armenia

Two Nations – Two Prophets, dir./prod. Sayat Dağlıyan, Turkey

Swimming With Cats, dir./prod. Jeff Kalousdian, Armenia

TRAINERS

Melek Ulagay Taylan
Melek Ulagay Taylan graduated from the American College for Girls (Robert College) in Istanbul in 1965. In 1967, she entered the Department of English Literature of Istanbul University. In 1971, Taylan left Turkey and lived in Geneva, Amsterdam and Bologna. Taylan returned to Turkey in 1974 and graduated from the Department of English Literature at Istanbul University. Taylan joined the Middle East Technical University (Ankara) Department of Humanities as an English language instructor in 1976. Taylan received her MA in International Relations at the faculty of Political Science (Ankara). In Istanbul, she worked as a press and PR consultant of the Agha Han Foundation. Taylan also worked as a simultaneous translator with the Association of Simultaneous Translators. In 1992, Taylan founded Ajans 21 as an Independent Documentary Film Company with associate Nurdan Arca. She is now making documentary films in Ajans 21 and has produced three feature length documentary films so far. Her filmography includes the documentaries: The Encounter (2000), Damming the Euphrates (2001), Dialogues in the Dark (2006).

Jennifer Sabbah
Jennifer Sabbah began her career working at Théâtre du Soleil (Ariane Mnouchkine). With a Masters in Film Studies and Business, she started as Line Producer on short films and TV series. She then worked at Eléfilm assisting French veteran producer Rosalinde Deville. After a stint at Unifrance in New York, in 2003 she joined ADR Productions in Paris where she was in charge of the documentary film department working on large-scale international co-productions. She attended the Media Business School’s programs in Spain and gained work experience at Verve Pictures and The Weinstein Company in London. She joined Boa Films in January 2008 as film Producer and is a member of EAVE.

ATCP 2010 Program is supported by the US Embassy in Armenia.

 

 

Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform is the borne of two Armenia-Turkey cinema workshops organized within the frameworks of Armenian-Turkish Cultural Initiative. The initiators of the program are Anadolu Kültür Association (Turkey) and Golden Apricot Yerevan International Film Festival(Armenia). Both workshops, organized in April 2008 in Istanbul, Turkey and in December 2008 in Yerevan, Armenia, served to the common goals: to develop close cooperation and close links with Armenia in the filed of culture, establish a film and cultural network between Armenia and Turkey, promote dialogue and exchange between the countries, maintain exchange of cultural heritage, organize workshops, promote a new geopolitical image of the countries in the region. Such issues, as “How cinema deals with history” and “Cinema as Means of Cross-Border Dialogue and Mutual Understanding” were widely discussed at both meetings.

Summarizing meetings mentioned above, the participants from both countries (among them were film directors, producer, scriptwriters, film critics and journalists) proved that the discussions should be followed by practical steps. So the first actions were identified to achieve the above-discussed goals.

Thus, choosing cinema as means of promotion of civil and cultural dialogue between Armenia and Turkey, Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform will serve as a common workplace for cinema practitioners from the two neighbor countries to develop joint short and full length film projects, exchange of film programs and to facilitate cooperation in all aspects of cinema.

Organizers and participants from both sides will continue the productively started work. Creating on-line forum for wide discussions for film-professionals and identifying future projects, which in future can get a form of an Almanac of short films and/or documentary and feature projects, will be among the first steps of long-term cooperation. The created network aims to unite individual filmmakers and professional organizations and studios, which will discuss common ideas and projects, search for financial sources on both sides and realize it as co-productions.

As a long term initiative, the Platform intends to have several co-productions of different formats and scales during the coming years.