Whispering Memories Turkey
2008, 42min.
Prod.: Caner Alper, Dir.: Mehmet Binay, Dir. of Phot.: Haldun Uslu, Compos.: Cenk Eroglu, Sound: Huseyin Onan, Edit.: Jasmin Guso.
Geben, a small town in the Taurus Mountains in Turkey stands out from the rest of the settlements in the region as a liberal and culturally open community. Journalist and documentary filmmaker Mehmet Binay discovered the town while traveling for another filming project in the area and became interested in why its people were so different. The town has a high literacy rate, the entire young population has finished high schools with many of them attending colleges in the larger cities of Turkey. The young people of Geben are aware of being different. Whispering Memories tells the story of a rural wedding by exploring local traditions, culture and regional history through the eyes of young villagers and their elders. While speaking to their elders, the young people of the village also ask questions about the times when Armenians lived in the area until 1915 as their neighbors. Whispering Memories is not a story of Armenians who had to leave Turkey but of those who stayed behind and silently became Muslims: they are now called the 'Converts'.
Production Company
CAM FILM
Alemdag Cd.
Evidea Konutlari B3 Blok Yukari Dudullu/Umraniye, Istanbul, Turkey
Tel: +90 216 499 31 13
Fax: +90 216 499 31 14
E-mail: caner@cam-story.com
www.cam-story.com
| Binay, Mehmet Mehmet Binay
Journalist Mehmet Binay studied political science and international relations in Germany before starting a career as a television reporter at the Turkish news channel NTV. Binay produced over 160 weekly programmes on foreign affairs, international crises and ethnic conflicts at NTV between the years 1998 and 2003. Mehmet Binay undertook the video and photographic documentation of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline between 2003 and 2006 and developed a regional video library of 500 hours of footage. Journalist and filmmaker Mehmet Binay had also the opportunity to develop an insight into the culture, traditions and history of the rural communities between the Caspian and Mediterranean seas while traveling for the Baku-Ceyhan pipeline. Binay currently develops new documentary film projects and works on corporate visual communications at CAM Film, of which he is a co-owner.
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