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Director Biography - Bahriye Kabadayı Dal
(b. 1977, Istanbul) lives in Istanbul. She graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, TV and Cinema. She has been working in the field of documentary cinema since 1997. Produced short news for TV channels at MİHA Visual Works Agency during the university period. She produced her first film Son Eller (The Last Hands), which is about a craftsman repair broken gramophones.
She joined the VTR Film Directing-Research & Production company in 1997. From this date until 2013, she worked on all projects produced by the company. Within the scope of VTR, she directed corporate promotional and historical films, commercial films, art exhibition films, oral history studies, and documentary films. She also directed public interest movies for several non-governmental organizations.
She actively involved in the events organized by the Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey (BSB) since it has been founded in 1997. She played an active role in various events and organizations such as local/ national/ international film festivals, conferences, screenings, trainings, workshops etc. organized by BSB. Assisted the chairman of the association between 1997 to 2005. Directed the Istanbul 12th International 1001 Documentary Film Festival (2009). In 2008, she was among the founders of BABIL Society, Culture and Art Studies and Documentary Cinema Association. Until 2013, when the association was active, she organized all interdisciplinary cultural and art events.
Her first feature-length documentary “A Bridge at the Edge of the World (Devrimci Gençlik Köprüsü)”, was the only documentary film project accepted into Meda Films Development (Euromed program), that took place in Morocco in 2006. The film was screened as the opening film of the 10th International 1001 Documentary Film Festival in Istanbul in 2007. The film, which was deemed worthy of the SİYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association) 2008 Best Documentary Film Award, among others, was screened in many national and international festivals and reached thousands of audiences. The film was released on DVD under the EMI label, and put on sale in bookstores and music markets in Turkey.
She founded own production company, Tarçın Film in April 2013, and produced the documentary films "Fish of Bosphorus", "Mysterious Stones of Hakkari" and "Baksı: From Utopia to Reality" with Burak Dal, the executive producer and editor. In order to draw attention to the pollution and declining fish stocks in the Sea of Marmara, she made 3 public interest films together with Burak Dal and carried out a social awareness campaign. This 2021 project titled “Do You See the Sea?” was supported by Think Civic, a European Union program. In 2022, she directed the documentary "Guardians of the Seas" for the WWF (World Wild Fund for Nature) Turkey.
In addition to her documentary works, she took part in various projects on literature at several times within the body of ATT Print & Publication company. She was the editor of the internet publication Newspaper Istanbul. In 2019-2020, she managed the development processes of the hero-oriented social media encyclopedia Novel Heroes project. She was the program coordinator and director of the Novel Heroes Istanbul Literature Festival, which was held in partnership with the Novel Heroes Magazine and Maltepe University in 2020 (on-line) and 2022.
She participated in the international Doc-stories Black Sea workshop (in Georgia, Romania, and Amsterdam/ IDFA) in 2012, BSB Pitch-in Istanbul in 2015, and İKSV Istanbul Biennial Work Program in 2019, with the project "A Journey to the Black Sea" consisting of different artistic formats. The post-production process of the documentary part continues.
She’s currently writing master’s thesis on Kids & Documentaries at Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences.
She is chair of the board of the Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey (BSB).
Director Statement
For me, this project means the documentary output of a long Black Sea journey.* I can say that the process behind the documentary goes back to 2010. Because that year, we visited to Thessaloniki/Kalamaria region in Greece to do preliminary research about the writer, Yorgos Andreadis, of Black Sea origin. This visiting made me realize once again that how important the “kemençe and horon” were for Black Sea residents all over the world, and have a symbolic value. Our testimonies in Thessaloniki, our wanderings in the neighborhoods and streets bearing the names of the cities in the Black Sea region in Turkey motivated me to tell this story via a documentary film.
In addition, since my family roots are in the Black Sea (a region close to Trabzon, where our main character Adem from Beşköy lives), I have always been interested in the stories hidden in the Black Sea throughout my documentary career. After meeting Adem from Beşköy and his music, I came to the conclusion that the most positive way to talk about the ancient Pontus culture, which is another thorny garden for both Turkey and Greece, would be music and dance. Adem's personality and stance also strengthened my conviction and carried him to a more special place among the invaluable Turkish and Greek musicians who produced similar productions in the field we tried to point out with our documentary.
Although the fact that we had to shoot most of the filming during the pandemic period (2020-2022), we were not able to shoot many of the scenes we dreamed of, but as in every documentary work, unexpected but spontaneous surprises increased our motivation for the film. At this stage, we would like to finalize the film by making additional shots.
I look forward to sharing this cinematographic Black Sea journey both with the people of the Black Sea region with the common music, dance and culture they carry to different corners of the world, and with peoples who have gone through similar processes in different geographies.
*This journey will be complemented with a commemorative film about Yorgos Andreadis, where I gained my first knowledge of the people who dispersed from the Black Sea to the world, and a three-channel video work which I designed by combining my feelings about the people who dispersed from the Black Sea to the world with "nature", and developed during The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme, which I participated in 2019.
Ratings
The documentary is about a young musician, Adem Ekiz. He lives in Trabzon/ Turkey with his wife and 3 kids. He’s a Muslim, and his mother tongue is Pontian Greek. He’s playing “kemancha”, traditional music instrument of Black Sea people in Turkey, and in everywhere Pontian people live in the world. Through his music he is silently breaking the chains between peoples by singing his traditional songs in both Turkish and Greek language.
Director Biography - Bahriye Kabadayı Dal
(b. 1977, Istanbul) lives in Istanbul. She graduated from Marmara University, Faculty of Communication, Department of Radio, TV and Cinema. She has been working in the field of documentary cinema since 1997. Produced short news for TV channels at MİHA Visual Works Agency during the university period. She produced her first film Son Eller (The Last Hands), which is about a craftsman repair broken gramophones.
She joined the VTR Film Directing-Research & Production company in 1997. From this date until 2013, she worked on all projects produced by the company. Within the scope of VTR, she directed corporate promotional and historical films, commercial films, art exhibition films, oral history studies, and documentary films. She also directed public interest movies for several non-governmental organizations.
She actively involved in the events organized by the Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey (BSB) since it has been founded in 1997. She played an active role in various events and organizations such as local/ national/ international film festivals, conferences, screenings, trainings, workshops etc. organized by BSB. Assisted the chairman of the association between 1997 to 2005. Directed the Istanbul 12th International 1001 Documentary Film Festival (2009). In 2008, she was among the founders of BABIL Society, Culture and Art Studies and Documentary Cinema Association. Until 2013, when the association was active, she organized all interdisciplinary cultural and art events.
Her first feature-length documentary “A Bridge at the Edge of the World (Devrimci Gençlik Köprüsü)”, was the only documentary film project accepted into Meda Films Development (Euromed program), that took place in Morocco in 2006. The film was screened as the opening film of the 10th International 1001 Documentary Film Festival in Istanbul in 2007. The film, which was deemed worthy of the SİYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association) 2008 Best Documentary Film Award, among others, was screened in many national and international festivals and reached thousands of audiences. The film was released on DVD under the EMI label, and put on sale in bookstores and music markets in Turkey.
She founded own production company, Tarçın Film in April 2013, and produced the documentary films "Fish of Bosphorus", "Mysterious Stones of Hakkari" and "Baksı: From Utopia to Reality" with Burak Dal, the executive producer and editor. In order to draw attention to the pollution and declining fish stocks in the Sea of Marmara, she made 3 public interest films together with Burak Dal and carried out a social awareness campaign. This 2021 project titled “Do You See the Sea?” was supported by Think Civic, a European Union program. In 2022, she directed the documentary "Guardians of the Seas" for the WWF (World Wild Fund for Nature) Turkey.
In addition to her documentary works, she took part in various projects on literature at several times within the body of ATT Print & Publication company. She was the editor of the internet publication Newspaper Istanbul. In 2019-2020, she managed the development processes of the hero-oriented social media encyclopedia Novel Heroes project. She was the program coordinator and director of the Novel Heroes Istanbul Literature Festival, which was held in partnership with the Novel Heroes Magazine and Maltepe University in 2020 (on-line) and 2022.
She participated in the international Doc-stories Black Sea workshop (in Georgia, Romania, and Amsterdam/ IDFA) in 2012, BSB Pitch-in Istanbul in 2015, and İKSV Istanbul Biennial Work Program in 2019, with the project "A Journey to the Black Sea" consisting of different artistic formats. The post-production process of the documentary part continues.
She’s currently writing master’s thesis on Kids & Documentaries at Marmara University Institute of Social Sciences.
She is chair of the board of the Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey (BSB).
Director Statement
For me, this project means the documentary output of a long Black Sea journey.* I can say that the process behind the documentary goes back to 2010. Because that year, we visited to Thessaloniki/Kalamaria region in Greece to do preliminary research about the writer, Yorgos Andreadis, of Black Sea origin. This visiting made me realize once again that how important the “kemençe and horon” were for Black Sea residents all over the world, and have a symbolic value. Our testimonies in Thessaloniki, our wanderings in the neighborhoods and streets bearing the names of the cities in the Black Sea region in Turkey motivated me to tell this story via a documentary film.
In addition, since my family roots are in the Black Sea (a region close to Trabzon, where our main character Adem from Beşköy lives), I have always been interested in the stories hidden in the Black Sea throughout my documentary career. After meeting Adem from Beşköy and his music, I came to the conclusion that the most positive way to talk about the ancient Pontus culture, which is another thorny garden for both Turkey and Greece, would be music and dance. Adem's personality and stance also strengthened my conviction and carried him to a more special place among the invaluable Turkish and Greek musicians who produced similar productions in the field we tried to point out with our documentary.
Although the fact that we had to shoot most of the filming during the pandemic period (2020-2022), we were not able to shoot many of the scenes we dreamed of, but as in every documentary work, unexpected but spontaneous surprises increased our motivation for the film. At this stage, we would like to finalize the film by making additional shots.
I look forward to sharing this cinematographic Black Sea journey both with the people of the Black Sea region with the common music, dance and culture they carry to different corners of the world, and with peoples who have gone through similar processes in different geographies.
*This journey will be complemented with a commemorative film about Yorgos Andreadis, where I gained my first knowledge of the people who dispersed from the Black Sea to the world, and a three-channel video work which I designed by combining my feelings about the people who dispersed from the Black Sea to the world with "nature", and developed during The Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme, which I participated in 2019.
Ratings
The documentary is about a young musician, Adem Ekiz. He lives in Trabzon/ Turkey with his wife and 3 kids. He’s a Muslim, and his mother tongue is Pontian Greek. He’s playing “kemancha”, traditional music instrument of Black Sea people in Turkey, and in everywhere Pontian people live in the world. Through his music he is silently breaking the chains between peoples by singing his traditional songs in both Turkish and Greek language.
