OCAK
2020
Giresun, Turkey
28 min
Festival Screenings
Royal Anthropological Institute Film Festival 2021, UK
Bharat International Film Festival 2021, India -
Best Documentary
Palma de Mallorca International Films Infest Festival 2020, Spain
Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival 2020, USA
Regard Bleu: Film Festival 2020, Switzerland
IFF Etnofilm Čadca 2020, Slovakia
Venice Intercultural Film Festival 2020, Italy
Anatolia International Film Festival 2020, Turkey
Ocak is a short documentary film that explores the story of a family who earns their livelihood as hazelnut cultivators in rural north-eastern Turkey.
Filmed in an observational style, it offers glimpses into the local everyday life in the village and explores the relationship between people and their hazelnut gardens which have been inherited throughout generations. As the film reflects on labor and gender, it also asks questions about the heart, land and family.
Ocak hopes to challenge the all too prevalent mainstream narrative within the documentary media tradition, which frame gender dynamics in the Muslim Middle East simply as an oppressor-oppressed dichotomy.
By taking the audience closer to the daily worries and desires, joys and quarrels of the people on screen, Ocak provides an in-depth ethnographic understanding of life as lived by the members of this community.
Filmed in an observational style, it offers glimpses into the local everyday life in the village and explores the relationship between people and their hazelnut gardens which have been inherited throughout generations. As the film reflects on labor and gender, it also asks questions about the heart, land and family.
Ocak hopes to challenge the all too prevalent mainstream narrative within the documentary media tradition, which frame gender dynamics in the Muslim Middle East simply as an oppressor-oppressed dichotomy.
By taking the audience closer to the daily worries and desires, joys and quarrels of the people on screen, Ocak provides an in-depth ethnographic understanding of life as lived by the members of this community.
COMMUNITY
2019
Manchester, UK
17 min
in collaboration with
Joseph Bonnell
This is a short ethnographic documentary about a group of people and their community garden.
It is set in Woodbank Community Food Hub, an urban horticulture hub in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The film reflects on this garden’s role as a place where people can access to sustainably sourced organic produce by taking a part in the growing process.
It is set in Woodbank Community Food Hub, an urban horticulture hub in Stockport, Greater Manchester.
The film reflects on this garden’s role as a place where people can access to sustainably sourced organic produce by taking a part in the growing process.
TAXIDERMY
2019
York, UK
10 min
in collaboration with
Melanie Grant
