3 + 4 APRIL 2020 : Özlem Sarıyıldız & Yunus Emre Aydın

İSTANBUL MAKAMI / ISTANBUL NOTES
Documentary, 69’46”
Turkish and English with English/German Subtitles
2016, Turkey
Authors: Özlem Sarıyıldız & Yunus Emre Aydın

SCREENING DATE: Friday 3 + Saturday 4 April 2020 – 48 hours available on Vimeo HIER&JETZT: Connection

SYNOPSIS

‘Istanbul Notes’
is a cinematographic improvisation with 5 musicians from abroad who fall in love with the Maqam Music (Classical Ottoman Music), and decide to live in Turkey believing that music might best be learned in the lands it was born and performed. Each musician has a different story, but the desire to find their own path intersects their roads. Giving a section from the sound-scape-memories of the recent years of the city and following intertwining stories in pursuit of passion, the film is a modern times fairytale in praise of Istanbul and its music; a film about obstinacy, desire, looking for one’s own raison d’être in flow.

AUTHORS:

Özlem Sarıyıldız (TR); uses audio-visual materials as her main tools of research and expression. Her work focuses on gender, memory, oral history and the commons, and she strives to communicate with her audience using the direct beauty of the ruins of life as it is. She studied Industrial Design (BA) and Media and Cultural Studies (MS) at METU – Middle East Technical University – before starting her Ph.D. in Graphic Design at Bilkent University. Her videos and films have been shown in international festivals and exhibitions. She lives and works in Berlin since 2017. In 2020 she started her collaboration as artistic director of HIER&JETZT: Connections.

Yunus Emre Aydın; was born in 1982 in Turkey. He was graduated from Istanbul University Department of Philosophy and continue his MS in the same department. He works as a professional photographer and plays ud. Istanbul Makamı is his first documentary.