Location BIAA, 154 Atatürk Bulvarı, Ankara
Date and time
Thursday 16 May 2024
17:00 - 20:00 (London BST)
19:00 - 22:00 (Ankara UTC+3)
Speakers
Erkan Gürsel
University of Cambridge
No.910 (2024, Türkiye) is a forty-eight-minute documentary film exploring the impacts of the 2023 earthquakes on the neighbourhood of Affan in the city of Antakya, Türkiye.
Eight months have passed since the February earthquakes struck south-eastern Türkiye and northern Syria. In the centrally located Affan neighbourhood in the city of Antakya on the border of Türkiye and Syria, where the earthquakes have had devastating effects, Erkan stands amidst the rubble with his close relatives and surveys the damage. On one side is his father, who left the neighbourhood to study in London in the 1970s and has returned only for brief visits ever-since. On the other side is his aunt, who never left Affan even after her home was destroyed. Passing through the same streets on different days with either his father or aunt by his side, Erkan invites the audience to witness the stories of his family and their neighbours and learn about their experiences since the earthquakes.
Director’s statement: “Devastated by my own families’ losses in the 2023 earthquakes, I have turned to filmmaking and visual archiving as a manner with which to sociologically explore the realities of living in a post-disaster context, emphasising on the humanitarian impact that such disasters can have particularly when combined with governmental stagnancy and political ambivalence in the contemporary Republic of Turkey”.
Credits:
Director: Erkan Gürsel
Featuring: Cemil Gürsel & Sıdıka Parmaksız
Main Producer: Gök Akyel (Terso Cinema & Production)
Project & Content Advisor: Pelin Anılan
Editor: Umur Dağlı
Sound Editor & Mixer: Bora Özkum
Line Producer: Hasret Sak
Line Producer: Ezgi Sakacı
Welfare Assistant: Dexter Sakacı
Colourist: Taha Bayramoğlu
Translation & Subtitles: Orion Tercüme
Legal Advisor: Yiğit Timur
Soundtrack & Music: Philip Gamble (aka GIRL UNIT)
Visual Designer: Cythnia-ël Hasbani
Funded by: Doria Feminist Fund
Erkan Gürsel is a London-born, Istanbul-based researcher and filmmaker. With an academic background in politics and migration from SOAS and UCL, Erkan’s work is concerned with exploring the nuances of Indigenous identity, the sociology of disaster, and the contemporary manifestations of human rights vis-à-vis the nation-state in the Republic of Türkiye. Since the start of 2023, Erkan has been working with various domestic and internationally-based organisations in Türkiye to coordinate emergency response and aid to the provinces most devastated by the February 6 and February 20 earthquakes in Türkiye & Syria. He currently holds a position on the MPhil Sociology programme at the University of Cambridge to start in Autumn 2024, where he will be continuing his research on the mid- to long-term effects of the earthquakes for local communities in the city of Antakya.