There once was a time when consumer goods were built to last. Then, in the 1920’s, a group of businessmen realized that the longer their product lasted, the less money they made, thus Planned Obsolescence was born, and manufacturers have been engineering products to fail ever since.
The current throwaway climate – where the latest technology is outdated after a year and electronics are cheaper to replace than to repair – is the basis for economic growth. But infinite consumption is unsustainable with finite resources. With the economy crumbling and consumers becoming increasingly resistant to the practice, has planned obsolescence reached the end of its own life?
Combining investigative research and rare archive footage with analysis by those working on ways to save both the economy and the environment, this documentary charts the creation of ‘engineering to fail’, its rise to prominence and its recent fall from grace.
Director Annie Pertan has 25 years of experience in the film industry and produced several films with her late husband, Ersin Pertan.
‘The Colors of Cultural Differences,’ a new documentary focusing on non-Turkish cultural groups in Istanbul, will soon go into wider release. ‘The artists in the film talk about their relationship to Istanbul, to their community and to their art. I tried to make it as diverse as possible with poets, writers, painters,’ says director Annie Pertan
Director Annie Pertan has 25 years of experience in the film industry and produced several films with her late husband, Ersin Pertan.
Casting a light on the various ethnic and religious groups that call Istanbul home, a new documentary called “The Colors of Cultural Differences” is set for showing in various showings throughout the city in the near future.
“People should see ‘The Colors of Cultural Differences’ several times in order to understand the many levels presented,” director Annie Pertan recently told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “The artists in the film talk about their relationship to the city of Istanbul, to their community and to their art. I talked to the heads of the various minority communities, except there aren’t so many Greeks left here any more. I tried to make it as diverse as possible – poets, writers, painters.”
The documentary, which was shown at Istanbul’s Zoğrafyon Lycee last week and the Swedish Consulate General on Monday, will be shown elsewhere in the coming days. The film was also produced with the assistance of the 2010 Istanbul European Capital of Culture Agency.
The production team had originally wanted to produce a project of six films, each of 60-90 minutes, that would cover all of Turkey – its minorities, their communities, their buildings, their history and the like, but the agency committee ruling on proposals suggested they only do one project, so they decide on “Colors,” Pertan said.
The documentary features 16 artists who were born and raised in Istanbul and tell of their continued love for the city from which they draw their inspiration.
Some of the best known artists included are Ara Güler, İzzet Keribar, Selim Sesler, Hayko Cepkin, Giovanni Scognamillo and Suzi Hug Levi.
All those featured speak against the background of the city – some of the shots are from the water, some from the air. Avoiding any glossing over of their difficulties of living in the city, the artists touch on the problems of life in Istanbul as a member of non-dominant ethnic or religious groups.
Ultimately, Pertan said the city was like ebru, the Ottoman art form in which colors are spread over a liquid mixture – never mixing, yet still creating a picture.
The project was filmed over a three-month period – March, April and May 2010 – using two cameras while the editing and sound track work was conducted in Denmark. Bobbie Pertan, meanwhile, was the co-director on the film and handled the technical details.
Pertan said she hoped to complete work on the film and subtitles before submitting the final production to various documentary festivals around the world.
Many years of experience in film industry
Born of a Norwegian father and a Greek mother in Istanbul, Pertan studied in Oslo and in Paris but later decided to settle in Istanbul.
Pertan has 25 years of experience in the film industry and started as an art director for an early Halit Refiğ television film, “Aşk-ı Memnu.”
She has also been a production designer and producer. Several of the films she produced were with her late husband, Ersin Pertan, who died last year.
The director said her next project would be “Istanbul – City of Miracles” – although the project is contingent upon finding financing. She said she would like to film places where miracles are said to have occurred, such as holy springs, türbes (shrines) and other such area, combining those scenes with interviews with people who have experienced miracles.
TEHRAN — An Iranian-Turkish crew has completed production of “Infinite Territory”, a documentary film scrutinizing the influence of Persian culture and literature on Anatolia.
The documentary has been produced in six 20-minute episodes by Iranian filmmaker Gholamreza Siami for IRIB’s international TV network Sahar.
The film provides clues as to how Persian culture and language have had an effect on various fields including architecture, literature, and scientific studies in the region, the Sahar Public Relations Office announced in a press release on Sunday.
Many scholars, translators, authors, publishers, historians, and architects were interviewed for production of the documentary.
It also studies the effects of Persian poet and mystic Molavi Jalal-ad-Din Rumi, whose tomb is located in Konya in southern Turkey.
The crew toured the Turkish cities of Istanbul, Ankara, Konya, Mardin, Diyarbakir, and Sanliurfa for production of the film.
In addition, they made journeys to the ancient Turkish sites of Cappadocia, Midyat, and Mount Nemrut to gather information for the film.
Turkish translator Veysel Basci, who has rendered a number of works on Persian modern and classic literature, was an advisor to the project.
A cameraman, his assistant and a production manager were hired in Turkey.
via tehran times : “Infinite Territory” weighs Persian cultural influence over Anatolia.
ATAA to Screen Award-winning Cyprus Missing Persons Documentary,”The Vanished Bus”
ATAA is pleased to announce the screening of the award-winning Turkish Cypriot documentary, “The Vanished Bus” (Kayıp Otobüs), at the Turkish House in Dupont Circle on Friday, December 5, 2008, 7pm.
“Kayıp Otobüs” investigates the 1964 kidnapping and massacre of 40 Turkish Cypriot workers, whose lives came to a violent end at the hands of Greek Cypriot militias bent on creating an ethnically and religiously homogenous Greek Christian Orthodox island united with Greece. Forty years after the Missing Persons saga began, the remains of the 40 workers were discovered in a mass grave.
Producer Fevzi Tanpinar will make opening remarks and answer questions. “Kayıp Otobüs” was successfully shown by the United Nations in a Buffer Zone Event in Nicosia, and by the Council of Europe, which houses the European Court of Human Rights. The documentary is a finalist in the Boston Film Festival, which is being held this week.
Please join us at the ATAA Turkish House, located at 1526 18th Street, NW, Washington DC. Refreshments will be served.
A documentary film about the 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997 military interventions and coups d’etat in Turkey
Directed by Elif Savas Felsen
Produced by Brian Felsen
COUP is made possible by a grant from the New York Council on the Arts and the Experimental Television Center
COUP (DARBE) explores the origins of the militarily-patrolled democratic system created by Ataturk in the 1920’s; the place of the armed forces in the political and cultural life of the nation; the causes and consequences of each coup d’etat and how they differ from those in South America and the rest of the world, and the future of the “military democracy.”
COUP contains not one word of voice-over narration or one frame of simulated footage. The film instead weaves together interviews with activists, politicians, and military leaders with extraordinary archival and personal footage of the military actions, street demonstrations and extremist activisms. This enables the film to illustrate the variegated nature of the current debate in Turkey, interweaving radically differing viewpoints without passing them through the filter of an overriding narrator. In so doing, the film can remain true to its subject, giving the viewer visual experience of the devastating impact of the collision between state and military authority and extreme civil activism, while providing a hoard of information that goes beyond the mere “sound-byte.”
SPEAKERS
Some of the film’s interview subjects are Former National Ministers of Health, the Interior, and Foreign Affairs; authors of the Turkish Constitution; current and former Members of Parliament; aides to the President and Prime Minister; military officers; junta leaders; intelligence agents; publishers; party leaders; extremist activists; former death-row prisoners, and scholars.
Several of the film’s interview subjects have never before spoken on film about their experiences. The filmmakers have brought together for the first time politicians from all sides of the political spectrum, even the extremes, to talk about issues of international importance.
COUP is above all an oral history of world-shaping events, and viewers are able to hear direct testimony from the participants themselves. Several who participated in the 1960 coup are well into their 80’s, making this film a great chance to preserve their thoughts and a wonderful window into their times. Already, four of our speakers are no longer with us: General Muhsin Batur (who died in Florence Nightingale Hospital in Istanbul of natural causes after filming), Columnist Raif Ertem, Constitutional Law Professor Bulent Tanor,and Journalist Ahmet Taner Kislali (who was murdered by a car bomb outside of his home shortly after filming completed.)
FOOTAGE
Never-before-seen photos, documents, audio clips, and film footage from news services and personal archives form the backbone of the film. The film contains ceremonials with the Ottoman Pasha from the 1910’s; Atatürk speeches from the 1930’s; footage from the army trial resulting in the hanging of Prime Minister Menderes; speeches by 1960 coup leader Turkes; clips of the condemned student leader Deniz Gezmis; May Day street demonstrations from the 70’s and extremist café bombings; the September 1980 coup announcement and the follow-up elections in 1983; the 1995 rise of the religious Refah party; the 1997 coup by memorandum and closing down of the Refah office; and military press briefings from 1998.
COUP examines the degree to which abstract ideals (such as “freedom of speech” and “human rights”) are actually applied in a country facing political exigencies. Even if such rights exist on paper, there are practical consequences of asserting them in a nation where the stakes are so high: one of the film’s speakers was murdered by a car bomb after filming; some were jailed for their writings; and some were punished for having spoken with Amnesty International about their experiences. The film also takes a hard look at the practical and ethical issues raised when a country takes anti-democratic measures in its attempt to preserve a democratic system. These implications are both national, when the military becomes involved in the political process, and international, when the nation must balance their own needs with those of foreign governments and world powers.
There once was a time when consumer goods were built to last. Then, in the 1920’s, a group of businessmen realized that the longer their product lasted, the less money they made, thus Planned Obsolescence was born, and manufacturers have been engineering products to fail ever since.
