Istanbul Experimental

1st Istanbul International Experimental Film Festival

Programme Competition Special Events Venues Jury Winners Contributors Credits

Jak Şalom

Jak Şalom, born in Istanbul in 1946, served as Head of Turkish Languages and Civilizations at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations (INALCO) in Paris between 2006 and 2012. From 2009 to 2012, he was also Deputy Director of the Eurasian Department at the same institution. He was a member of the founding team of the Turkish Cinematheque Association.

He is the designer and director of the Sinematek / Cinema House project under the auspices of the Kadıköy Municipality. Between 1999 and 2012, he served as Head of Theatre Productions and faculty member at the Les Teintureries Theatre School in Lausanne.

Since 2015, he has been a lecturer at Boğaziçi University, teaching Cinema and Audience: Sociological Debate and Twelve Masters: Film as Art. He holds the rank of Officier in France’s Order of Arts and Letters.

Fulya Peker

Fulya Peker is a New York and Istanbul based performance/theater artist and poemist. She has performed in the works by well-known names of NY’s experimental theater/film, dance and music scene, such as Richard Foreman, John Zorn, Robert Ashley, Katsura Kan, David Michalek and Object Collection. Some of her most prominent credits as a writer/director include Requiem Aeternam Deo, The Void, The Plague, The Red Book, DEM. Peker, continues her experimental theater work as the founder and artistic director of Katharsis Performance Project and her interdisciplinary performance research under Modern Mythologies Project.

Tan Tolga Demirci

He was born in 1975 in Istanbul. Tan Tolga Demirci graduated from Dokuz Eylul University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Department of Cinema and Television in 1996 with the thesis 'Psychoanalysis of Horror Cinema'. The thesis published by ‘Es Publishing' in 2006 with the same title. Since 1999 he has made 12 short films and a feature film. He completed his master's degree at Kadir Has University with his thesis titled 'Traces of Surrealism in World Cinema'. Demirci currently teaching 'Experimental Film' at the same university.

Oğuzhan Ersümer

Professor at Akdeniz University and one of the members of Film Critics Association. Ersümer is the author of Cyberpunk in Science Fiction Cinema (Altıkırkbeş Yayınları, 2013) and numerous other articles and books. He is currently giving lectures on ‘Cinema and Philosophy’ and ‘Cinema Aesthetic and Film Reading’ at Akdeniz University Cinema-Tv department.

Kaan Müjdeci

Kaan Müjdeci (b. September 24, 1980, Yozgat) is a Turkish film director, producer, and screenwriter.

Müjdeci won the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival with his debut feature film Sivas (2014). The film was also Turkey’s submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Canan Balan

Canan Balan finished her bachelor’s and master’s degree at Istanbul University Department of Radio-TV Cinema. Balan received her Ph.D. in 2010 from St Andrews University, Department of Film Studies. She has published international articles and she gave speeches on 'Early Cinema Audience in Istanbul' which is her field of specialization. Other areas of her research include cinematicization of city culture, film ecology, feminism, and silent cinema. Balan, who has also made documentary film scripts, organizes workshops combining cinema and meditation. Since 2010, she has been working as an academician in İstanbul Şehir University Cinema-TV Department.