Foundation removes film from festival ‘because director is a perpetrator of violence’
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The film "A New Earth is Rising" by director Serhat Yüksekbağ has been removed from the 41st İstanbul Film Festival National Documentary Competition by the İstanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV).
The İKSV has announced that the documentary has been removed from the festival program and the competition on the grounds that Yüksekbağ is "a perpetrator of violence". The film will make its debut at the 41st İstanbul Film Festival National Documentary Competition.
The İstanbul Film Festival has announced the decision in a brief message on its social media account, briefly saying:
"We have found out that the director of the film 'A New Earth is Rising', selected to the İstanbul Film Festival National Documentary Competition, was the perpetrator of an incident of violence in the past years.
"We, as the İKSV and İstanbul Film Festival, once again recall that we are against violence against women and against perpetrators in every sphere of life and announce that we have removed the film from the National Documentary Competition and our program."
According to the statement, refunds will be directly made to the related bank accounts for the PDF tickets while the ones who bought print tickets have been requested to come to the İKSV main counter or to the Zorlu PSM Passo counter to initiate the refund process.
İstanbul Film Festivali Ulusal Belgesel Yarışması'na seçilen "Yeni Bir Dünya Doğuyor" filminin yönetmeninin geçtiğimiz yıllarda yaşanan bir şiddet olayının faili olduğunu öğrendik. pic.twitter.com/4uYhxoWZL7
— İstanbul Film Festivali (@ist_filmfest) April 14, 2022
While the director has been protested under the hashtag #susmabitsin (Don't stay silent so that it ends), the documentary will debut at the National Documentary Competition. The documentary features the environment of arts and politics in the 1968-1980 period through a group of fine arts students and the transformation of fine arts through social movements. (AÖ/SD)