International support for academic Can Candan

* Photo: Christian Bergmann

Click to read the article in Turkish

In support of academic and documentary filmmaker Can Candan, who was dismissed from Boğaziçi University by Naci İnci, the appointed acting rector of the university, filmmakers and academics from across the world have launched an international campaign for Candan.

In an open letter addressed to Boğaziçi University Rectorate, Boğaziçi University Senate and the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), 319 academics and documentary filmmakers from different countries of the world such as the US, Canada, Mexico, Britain, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Switzerland and Sweden have expressed their support for Can Candan.

The letter dated July 24, 2021 has read, "We stand in solidarity with unfairly dismissed filmmaker and academic Can Candan and with Boğaziçi University students and faculty in their struggle for academic freedom and autonomy." The full letter of support is as follows:

'A vocal advocate for academic freedom'

"Internationally renowned documentary filmmaker Can Candan has been summarily and unfairly dismissed by the new acting rector of Boğaziçi University.

"For many years, Candan has been a vocal advocate for academic freedom in Turkey and has been actively documenting the student and faculty resistance to the government-imposed politically appointed rector of the university.

"After six months of opposition, the illegitimately appointed rector was finally withdrawn but within hours of the withdrawal, the acting rector made his retributive intentions clear by swiftly cancelling the teaching contract of two vocal opponents, one of them Candan.

Academic and art works

"Making films since 1989, Candan's work has been screened internationally at festivals, conferences, schools, universities, in galleries, cinemas, and on television.

"He has taught film courses and workshops, both in universities and media education centers in the United States and Turkey.

"He is a founding member of docIstanbul Center for Documentary Studies, which organized the 2010 Visible Evidence International Documentary Studies Conference at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul.

"Candan has been teaching documentary and filmmaking at Boğaziçi University since 2007 where he is the sole full-time faculty in the university's first film certificate program.

"In 2016, he published the book Kurdish Documentary Cinema in Turkey, co-edited with Dr. Suncem Koçer, and their collaboration continues with a forthcoming edited collection entitled Documentary Cultures in Turkey. He is also working on a new book (in Turkish) in collaboration with Dr. Sonay Ban, about the history of documentary cinema in Turkey. ,

"Candan is the director of three award winning and internationally distributed feature-length documentaries Duvarlar-Mauern-Walls (2000), 3 Hours/Üç Saat (2008), and My Child/Benim Çocuğum (2013).

"He is currently working on his fourth feature documentary, Nuclear Alla Turka/Nükleer Alaturka.

'We stand in solidarity with Can Candan'

"The international community of academics, filmmakers, artists and cultural arts workers stand in solidarity with Can Candan and denounce this overtly hostile gesture to remove this valued member of the academic and filmmaking community from his post.

"Further, we stand in support of the students and faculty at Boğaziçi University who continue to valiantly resist the imposition of inappropriate governance at their university as they fight for academic freedom both for their own institution and in Turkey more broadly." (AS/SD)

Click here for the letter