Project for the Establishment of Film Clubs in Four Anatolian Universities

Supported by Open Society Institute, Heinrich Böll Stiftung Association in Turkey and British Council, the project aimed at reaching and working with four film clubs in the Anatolian cities selected among these nine: Batman, Kars, Hakkari, Canakkale, Antakya, Malatya, Konya, Van and Kayseri. Among all nine, AK decided to choose these three cities regarding the interested youth and AK`s network opportunities: Kars, Mersin, Diyarbakir and Çanakkale. Except Mersin where a number of activities have been held before, AK is working very actively in these cities through various projects.

During the preparation period, AK staff conducted field visits and had meetings with various actors in the cities. The universities in Kars, Mersin, Diyarbakir and Canakkale established cinema clubs though all having different perspectives and missions.

Between March 2008 and March 2009, five workshops were held in each city. Anadolu Kultur also supported the clubs by providing books on cinema and a DVD collection of selected films from Turkish, European and world cinema.

In addition, two members of each cinema clubs at Kafkas University (Kars), Canakkale 18th March University and Mersin University were also invited by Anadolu Kultur, British Council and Altyazi Periodical to Istanbul in order to meet with each other, share experiences, discuss further opportunities for collaboration while having the chance to see films from the festival and attend to the parallel events.

Between 19th and 21st of February 2009, Samet Akmeşe and Taner Şimay (Kars), Selin Karagülle and Fahri Taşdemir (Çanakkale), Sedat Azazi and Nazire Taş (Mersin) who attended the workshops held by Anadolu Kültür and Altyazı Periodical last year, met in Istanbul and had the chance to watch films screened in the 8th !f Istanbul AFM International Independent Film Festival. They also visited Mithat Alam Film Center (Bosphorus University) which is a very good example of a `cinema club` created within a university.