Istanbul Experimental

Programme Competition Special Events Venues Jury Winners Contributors Credits

Nurşen Bakır

Nurşen Bakır is a Turkish documentary and experimental filmmaker born in 1962 in İznik. She began studying Philosophy at Hacettepe University in Ankara but left to pursue cinema in the United States, where she earned a BA in Film and Video from the City University of New York (1992) and an M.F.A in Cinema from San Francisco State University (2002).
Her filmography spans three decades, from early 16mm works like Sounds of Euphrates (1990) to more recent documentaries such as Şu Fatsa'nın Yolları (2021), frequently exploring themes of memory, displacement, and social issues. Since 2005, she has been a lecturer at Istanbul Bilgi University and remains active within the Sine-Yol documentary collective.

Wickham Catesby Flannagan

Wickham Catesby Flannagan is an American filmmaker and media artist. He holds an M.F.A. in Mass Communication and Media Arts from Southern Illinois University (2017). His practice is informed by psychoanalytic theory — particularly the work of Jacques Lacan and Sigmund Freud — and draws on ethnographic film as a mode for exploring displacement, isolation, and the experience of living as a foreigner. Working across experimental and narrative forms, he has served as both cinematographer and director, and his films have screened at juried festivals including the Underground Filmfest, Il Varco International Film Festival, and the Palace International Film Festival. He currently teaches at Bilkent University's Department of Communication and Design in Ankara, where his courses cover media production, post-production techniques, and experimental filmmaking.

S. Buse Yıldırım

S. Buse Yıldırım is a documentary artist, curator, and cultural manager working at the intersection of visual anthropology, memory, and experimental forms of non-fiction storytelling. Her practice explores the porous boundaries of documentary through research-based methodologies, engaging with archives, oral histories, and cultural performance. Drawing on her background in History of Art (Goldsmiths), Documentary Filmmaking (ESEC Paris), and Visual & Media Anthropology (Freie Universität Berlin), she develops films and curatorial frameworks that navigate between observation and interpretation, often focusing on intergenerational memory, social landscapes, and sensory experience.

Alongside her artistic practice, she leads long-term cultural initiatives that investigate the role of memory and place. She is the founder of Kundura Hafıza, an archive and research center, and the Artistic Director of Beykoz Kundura, where she has contributed to the transformation of a former industrial site into a multidisciplinary cultural platform. She is also the initiator of Kundura DocLab, an international platform that brings together film and theatre practices to expand methodologies in non-fiction storytelling through collaborative and process-driven research.

Deniz Tortum

Deniz Tortum works in film and immersive media. Among his recent work, his feature documentary Phases of Matter (2020) explores a state-run teaching hospital in Istanbul; his essay video Our Ark (2021, co-dir Sister Sylvester) reflects on our efforts to create a virtual replica of the real world, a digital Noah’s Ark; and his virtual reality work Shadowtime (2023, co-dir Sister Sylvester) explores the history of virtual reality and its relation to the climate crisis. Between 2014 and 2022, he worked as a researcher and a producer at the MIT Open Documentary Lab, Media Art Xploration, and MIT Transmedia Storytelling Initiative. In 2019, he was featured as one of the 25 New Faces of Independent Film by Filmmaker Magazine. His work has screened internationally, including at the Venice Film Festival, IFFR, IDFA, SXSW, the Museum of the Moving Image among others. He is currently writing a column on the futures of cinema at the Filmmaker Magazine; leading an archival project with Salt Istanbul about the 60s independent Turkish film scene; and developing a film around spiritism and climate anxiety.

Aslı Kobaner

Aslı Kobaner is an Istanbul-based composer, improviser, and sound researcher whose practice spans sound art, contemporary (European-rooted) music, and gender studies — exploring concepts such as noise, affect, embodiment, performativity, and criticality. She holds a BA in Auditory Design from Yıldız Technical University (2010) and an MA in Composition from ITU MIAM (2017), and has recently completed her PhD. Her work encompasses commissioned pieces for contemporary music ensembles, short film scores, and sound and music design for video games, alongside various multimedia collaborations. Her compositions have been performed by Ensemble Télémaque, Hezarfen Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, ARTéfacts Ensemble, and klank.ist ensemble. Kobaner has participated in international festivals and venues including the Istanbul Film Festival, Marseille-Provence European Capital of Culture, Tanz im August / HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Montpellier Danse, KAAI Theatre Brussels, and Whitechapel Gallery (2019), among others.

Since October 2025, she has been co-hosting Audio Parazit, an independent music and sound radio programme on Apaçıkradyo, while also coordinating events for the programme's affiliated collective. She additionally organizes the Istanbul edition of Sonic Cartographies, klank.ist's audiovisual improvisation series. Her ongoing work focuses on free improvisation, sound design, and composition within the field of extreme music.