This film is part of the curators’ selection, but can’t be shown online.
In a programme with 18 MINUTEN ZIVILCOURAGE, BLACK IN THE WESTERN WORLD and JORDMANNEN.
Filmmaker Aykan Safoğlu visits the Old St. Matthew's Churchyard in Berlin with Kurdish feminist and activist Gülşen Aktaş. The essay film becomes a sensitive tribute to those whose lives were dedicated to fighting against discrimination, patriarchy and homophobia, including Afro-German poet May Ayim, drag queen Ovo Maltine, activist Helga Goetze and theoretician Hedwig Dohm. It is the second part of a trilogy in which Safoğlu examines the ambivalent relationship between photography and memory. His approach to the past suggests new perspectives on the present and future. While using images to create a commemorative film or even a sort of monument, he takes the etymology of the word photography – writing with light – as a starting point, creating picture-texts that navigate through time and space. “My images thus become sites of visual excavation which invite the audience to explore the sediments of a future vision of emotions together,” writes the director. (Can Sungu)
Aykan Safoğlu, born in 1984 in Istanbul, Turkey. He studied photography and art. His work moves between the fields of film, photography and performance and is shown at international exhibitions and festivals.
Director Aykan Safoğlu Cinematography Aykan Safoglu and Gizem Bayiksel (in Istanbul) Editing Mertcan Mertbilek With Gülşen Aktaş, Nurşen Aktaş
Films: 2013: Off-White Tulips (24 Min.).; Untitled (A Berlin Portrait) (13 Min.). 2014: Portraits (Marc). 2015: Untitled (Gülşen and Hüseyin), 2-Kanal-Videoinstallation (13 Min.). 2019: Touching Feeling (12 Min.); ziyaret, Visit (13 Min.). 2020: Dog Star Descending (12 Min.).
