turkish-greek civic dialogue - AEGEE Europe

camera operators, editors thanks to the technical support of the Istanbul Bilgi
University. One of the Kayaköy villagers opened their house to us, which was
used as a mobile studio for one week with almost all the necessary technical
equipment sufficient to make a live broadcast. All the participants exerted
enormous efforts from 7 in the morning till 2 in the night to capture all the
details from the festival. Despite the standard working hours of all the rest of
the workshops, the documentary team had a constant and meticulous work
with tolerance and enthusiasm.
The workshop participants were composed of professionals, academics
and students from Greece and Turkey who are interested in documentary
productions. Greek Director Maria Mavrikou provided professional assistance
to the participants in the production stage of the documentary, and Michalis
Geranios and Özkan Yılmaz from Bilgi University supported participants with
shooting and acting behind the camera. All other participants of the workshop
were happy to co-produce their first documentary in their life.
BACKPACKERS
................................................................................................................... Faruk Akbaş
Photographer, Photography Workshop Leader
A group of youngster from AEGEE, paid a visit to the Village, they said they
were extremely touched and decided to organise a festival here at the village.
As we were lingering around the Village Café, we did not believe at all that
they would bite off more than they can chew and would really organise such
a festival in such a village. Now I am happy since thanks to these committed
youngsters, we have witnessed interesting snapshots during the rock concerts
in Kaya, where old women from the village were coming to listen with their
headscarves.
Takis - workshop leader: We are only neighbours between two nations. Even
though it’s virtual, there exists a wall in-between. I am here to meet and get
to know more people. I am sorry that I could not take with me many more
photos by from well-known Greek artists. Photography is the easiest and the
most difficult art to start.
Association des Etats Généraux des Etudiants de L’Europe
Mesut Öztürk from Anadolu University Graphics
Department was one of the facilitators of the
photography workshop at the festival and he prepared
the below report.
KayaFest photography workshop was carried out
under the leadership of photographer Faruk Akbaş
and Takis Lazos. The workshop also welcomed two
facilitators, Giouli Mpagietakou and Mesut Öztürk.
The main objective of the photography workshop was
to make participants excited and be acquainted with
the art of photography, to encourage participants to
co-produce their works of art and to have thematic
discussions over the works.
Furthermore, another goal was to contribute to Kayaköy as a village having a
significant role for both communities by working on the village, taking photos
of the village and its inhabitants and finally by organising an exhibition, which
would help people to integrate better. In the course of the workshop, Faruk
Akbaş and Takis Lazos provided the participants with technical information on
photography. We conducted thematic discussions on the photographs taken.
We started our workshop by taking the photos of old settlements in Kayaköy.
Another day, we had portrait shots at the village café. We became guests to
Yusuf Amca’s house, as we were taking shots from the traditional Kaya life
together with its inhabitants, the villagers. Together with all the Greek and
Turkish participants, we kneeled down at Yusuf Amca’s dinner table and enjoyed
traditional food.
Some of the participants worked on picturing traditional Turkish cuisine, some
others the family and the household. Apart from such indoor shots, we worked
on tobacco fields, horse-riding field, on farmers harvesting on their fields, the
villagers dealing with beekeeping, images of sunset in Kayaköy, as well as night
shots by using the magical and graphical effect of concert stage lights on the
historical old settlements. Slide show presentations were another element
of the workshop. On the first day of the workshop, the participants had the
chance to see the collection of slides by Lazos and Akbaş themselves, followed
by the second day slide shows from Mesut, Vaggelis, Mariana, and Giouli. All the
photos taken during the workshop werecompiled and a jury composed of the
workshop leaders and facilitators selected the ones to be exhibited. On 2 nd of
August Saturday, we organized a very nice exhibition at the village café.
KayaFest Youth and Culture Festival
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