Documentarist: Documentary Against Deception, Lie

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The Documentarist İstanbul Documentary Days celebrates its 9th anniversary between the dates of May 28 – June 2.

The Documentarist hosts the documentaries compiling human stories worth to tell from all over the world, raising the voice of truth against deception and lies.

This year’s honor guest of the festival is Želimir Žilnik.

Želimir Žilnik with his career starting in 1960s deemed as one of the most significant directors of Yugoslavian cinema is a director who has created his own style by blending documentary and fiction. 10 of his movies will be screened in the “Tribute to the Masters” section of the Documentarist this year.

There will be music and dance documentaries too in the Documentarist.

Films Resisting Censorship

The festival maintains its special section of films subjected to censorship. The documentary named “In This Land Lay Graves of Mine” which was banned in Lebanon for bringing up the crimes committed during civil war.

“I am Chut Wutty” directed by Fran Lambrick treating the fight of locals and activists against the plunder of Prey Lang forests which is the means of livelihood of local community in Cambodia will be screened in the same section. The movie was banned in Cambodia in the recent months, then uploaded to Internet and watched by tens of thousands.

Queer Documentaries

One of the new sections of the festival this year bears the title of “Queer Documentaries” and compiles the movies which are about the stories telling the struggles for right. While “Kiki” (2016) directed by Swedish Sara Jordenö tells a story taking place in environment of young black LGBTI, “The Abominable Crime” (2013) of Micah Fink treats homophobic culture in Jamaica from the perspective of two homosexuals. “Irrawaddy Mon Amor” (2015) telling the secret relation of two young men in Burma, and the documentary named “#direnayol (2016) of Rüzgar Buşki monitoring the LGBTI movement following the Gezi Protests are among the works to be screened in the section.

There will be 23 movies from Turkey as well.

Venues of the festival

Screening and activity venues of the festival are SES Tiyatrosu, Aynalıgeçit Etkinlik Mekânı, Goethe Enstitüsü, SALT Galata, Cezayir Salonu, Zero ve TAK Kadıköy. The festival tickets may be purchased from Kweekweek website and hall entrances. The fees are 6 liras (1.8 euros) for full fare and 4 liras (1.2 euros) for students. (HK/TK)