The First World War

Produced by the Fox Movietone News arm of Fox Film Corporation and based on the book by Lawrence Stallings, this expanded newsreel, using stock-and-archive footage, tells the story of World War I from inception to conclusion. Alternating with scenes of trench warfare and intimate glimpses of European royalty at home, and scenes of conflict at sea combined with sequences of films from the secret archives of many of the involved nations.

Glückliche Reise

In Turkey, buses are a cheap, widespread and therefore the most important means of public transportation throughout the country. What the airplane is in America and the train is in Europe, the intercity bus is in Turkey. The documentary takes a trip through Turkey using the common people's means of transport.

Atatürk'ün Alev Çiçekleri

The Armenian Genocide

Explores the Ottoman Empire killings of more than one million Armenians during World War I. The film describes not only what happened before, during and since World War I, but also takes a direct look at the genocide denial maintained by Turkey to the present day.

Sarı Zeybek

From the famous Turkish journalist, Can Dündar narrates the last 300 days of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. The documentary features the stories and mails from the friends of Atatürk who is the founder of Turkish Republic and also led the Turkish army in the Turkish War of Independence

Le Génocide arménien

More than one million Armenians perished between 1915 and 1916 in massacres or brutal deportation programs. Turkey still denies it ever happened. Laurence Jourdan examines massacres of Armenians in the decades leading up to the mass murder, and the geopolitical situation both before and after the genocide. Contemporaneous reports and documents written by Western diplomats stationed in the Ottoman Empire describe the methods used and the deportation routes. These accounts are mixed with personal stories from the living survivors and archive footage from Ottoman authorities.

Demirkırat: Bir Demokrasinin Doğuşu

A documentary of Turkish political history about multi-party period, Democrat Party government and the coup d'etat of 27th May. Including eye-witness interviews with journalists, officers, politicians and family members.

Son Mektup

Pilot Captain Salih Ekrem is a young air officer and one of the first Ottoman pilots.

Atatürk II 1881 – 1919

Mustafa Kemal had just begun his journey after proving himself in 1915 at the Gallipoli front. He would go on to face major battles on the eastern front against the Russians and later against the British in Syria, ultimately becoming the only Ottoman officer not to lose a battle during WW1. However, despite all his success, he would encounter an unexpected challenge upon his return to Istanbul.

Arada

The story of three Turkish men. They all grew up in Switzerland and all got deported after various criminal offenses.

Turkeys for Xmas

Feathered friends prepare to meet their fate in this seasonal newsreel outing to a Norfolk turkey farm.

۴۸ ساعت سوپروومن بودن

A mountaineer had to walk for 48 hours during a winter storm to avoid freezing.

Trans*BUT — Fragments of Identity

Fragmentary perspectives on Human Rights and transgender (trans*) People in Turkey. What remains at the place where a murder happened? What constitutes trans* life? How to cope with daily violence and hatred? We begin to search for traces. We follow the tracks of resistance and survival. We are collectors of the expelled. We gather fragments of trans* lives inspired by texts of Nazim Hikmet, Foucault, Benjamin and Zeki Müren. Trans*BUT is a documental research study driven by the question: “What keeps you going when all else falls away?”

Kapımızdaki Ziyaretçiler

Are we alone in the universe? This question has been preoccupying humanity for decades. Today, people don’t believe in extraterrestrial life. But there are witnesses from different countries, having interesting experiences. This documentary focuses on stories of a group of people from Turkey who had those kind of experiences.

İHA'nın Arşivinden 17 Ağustos 1999 Depremi

Garod

Garod means longing in Armenian. Longing for a land that lost its people. Longing for the homeland. Longing for a time that is eternally lost. “Garod” is a story of longing. It is about the lives and the musical stories of two Armenian musicians - a father and his son, Onnik Dinkjian and Ara Dinkjian. It tells the story of the remaking of a musical tradition and life in diaspora, passes through different geographies and countries following the traces of a musical tradition. In this documentary, Garod means not only longing for loss but also remaking of a musical tradition and the life itself.

Kurdistan, la guerre des filles

As the forces of ISIS and Assad tear through villages and society in Syria and Northern Iraq, a group of brave and idealistic women are taking up arms against them—and winning inspiring victories. Members of “The Free Women’s Party” come from Paris, Turkish Kurdistan, and other parts of the world. Their dream: To create a Democratic Syria, and a society based on gender equality. Guns in hand, these women are carrying on a movement with roots that run 40 years deep in the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey. GIRL’S WAR honors the legacy of Sakine Cansiz, co-founder of the PKK who was assassinated in Paris in 2013, and reflects on the sacrifices made by all of the women in the movement, who have endured jail, rape, war, and persecution in their quest to liberate their lives and sisters from male dominance. With scenes of solidarity, strength, and love amongst these brave women soldiers, GIRL'S WAR is a surprising story of Middle Eastern feminism on the front lines.

Afganistanbul

Byzance

Byzance uses a text by Stefan Zweig to describe the Ottoman conquest of the city in 1453. Before he turned to feature filmmaking in 1968 with Naked Childhood, Pialat worked on a series of short films, many of them financed by French television. Byzance is one of Pialat’s six Turkish shorts.

Maître Galip

Maître Galip is the most poetic and powerful of Pialat's Turkish Chronicles, using the poems of Nazim Hikmet to accompany a series of evocative images of ordinary working class people in Istanbul. This was the film that Pialat himself claimed was the most complete realization of what he was aiming for with his Turkish documentaries. It's not difficult to see why this was his favorite: here he abandons the historical commentary and documentary observation of the other shorts in favor of an emotional emphasis on the lives of the poor and the unemployed.