In June, members of the Turkish-Armenian Film Platform – directors, actors, producers, academics and film professionals – gathered for their biannual meetings. Created in 2007 at the 47th International Yerevan Film Festival, the Platform works on both sides of the Armenian-Turkish border to develop cultural exchanges on joint film projects. Members of the organisation want to demonstrate the power of cinema to forge links when a situation may seem blocked.
As well as the two meetings they hold every year, one in Istanbul and one in Yerevan, they organize workshops open to film-makers at the Istanbul International Film Festival and at the Golden Apricot Film Festival (in Yerevan). The first of these fourteen workshops was in 2008 on the theme “How cinema deals with history.”
This year’s workshops will include presentations, workshops, meetings with professionals and a project pitching session. They will be held on July 13th and 14th. Among the 10 film projects presented, one of them will win a cash prize of €10,000 granted by the Black Sea Regional Cooperation Fund and the American Marshall Fund.
The Platform aims to support and encourage co-productions. 16 films, shorts and feature films, have so far benefited from its services.
During the rest of the year, Platform organizes meetings in Turkish universities during which directors from the two countries and the diaspora come to show and discuss their films.
Sources: aujourdhuilaturquie.com, cinemaplatform.org et hurriyetdailynews.com
