A letter from 1915

When you make films, you’d think your job is done once the editing is over, and the story is out and ready for screening. This was how I felt when Whispering Memories first met with the Turkish audience thanks to a national TV broadcast on CNN Turk, and the first international festival screening at the Golden Apricot in Yerevan, Armenia in July 2008. This is how we started telling the story of a tiny and hidden village in the Taurus mountains of Turkey to the outside world. A documentary film about ‘Armenian Converts’ and how they survived 1915 by remaining in this small village in Anatolia.

Soon after my visit to Yerevan, I received an email through my producer M.Caner Alper. He’d also included in his note that I should have a close look at it because the sender was mentioning that his father was from Geben, the Turkish village where we’d filmed ‘Whispering Memories’.

I started reading the email word by word and spotted the name Ghazaros Kerjilian as its sender. I first went into silence and then I could not avoid crying because ‘Kerjili’ was the only Armenian name in Whispering Memories, villagers of Geben remembered clearly. They’d told us the story of how he left Geben as the last person from the Armenian community. And now, I was receiving an email from someone carrying the same name and he was saying that his father was from Geben and that he always wanted to visit Geben until he died, only four years ago at the age of 97.

Our correspondence continued with mutual excitement and passion until Ghazaros came out to Toronto from upstate New York to meet me and my producer Caner at the Pomegranate International Film Festival. There, we sat next to each other while we watched -once again- how villagers described in detail his grandfather leaving Geben in 1915. Ghazaros had also brought his father’s picture to Toronto for us to see. As soon as we caught a glimpse of his father’s face, we both said to each other that he has a peculiar similarity to the Old Imam in Whispering Memories, a first hand witness of 1915.

Over the winter months, we slowly and cautiously planned Ghazaros’ journey to his fathers village in the Taurus Mountains. Yasemin, the Convert girl in Whispering Memories and her family warmheartedly welcomed our intentions and offered us their hospitality without any conditions. In Geben, we would stay at their home and be witness to the reunion of “Turks” and “Armenians” of Geben for the first time after almost a century since their separation. Furthermore, there could also be family relations to be unearthed between “Turks” and “Armenians”...

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Pictures leave a life-long mark in our memories regardless of how important movies are in modern times. This is why we decided to document Ghazaros’ journey by taking continuously shot still photographs. Over 6.000 pictures formed the basis of a 14 minute long documentary film enriched by interviews recorded in the field. Italian composer Paolo Poti prepared the soundtrack based on the famous Armenian song “Cilicia” in a classical approach. This is how our short documentary “Talking Pictures” came into life with its international debut to be taken place at the ARPA International Film Festival between 23-25 October 2009 in Los Angeles.

Herewith, we’d like to thank you for your interest in Whispering Memories and our evolving documentary story. The teaser of Talking Pictures can be found in Youtube, Vimeo and Facebook; related links are provided below. Information about screenings at upcoming festivals and digital platforms will be constantly updated via our blog, Facebook group, and the official site of CAM Film.

Please help us in sharing our story with the world.

Thank you.

Mehmet Binay / M.Caner Alper

8 October 2009

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For more information:

Talking Pictures is the photographic journey of Ghazaros Kerjilian to his paternal home in the Taurus mountain region in Turkey and his search for the lost great uncle in 1915.

A short documentary by Mehmet BINAY / M.Caner ALPER

Post-production by Jasmin GUSO

Photography by Huseyin ONAN

Music by Paolo POTI

Narrated by Mehmet BINAY

© CAM Film 2009

TALKING PICTURES

Teaser on Youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k25jBGcljhQ

Teaser on Vimeo:

http://www.vimeo.com/6926352

Facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=30514440135

French daily Le Figaro about Turkish intellectuals and art on history

L'intelligentsia turque regarde son passé arménien  

De plus en plus d'intellectuels et d'artistes bousculent la version officielle de l'histoire.

QUAND le mot « génocide » a été prononcé, quelques spectateurs ont quitté la salle de cinéma du Centre culturel français, à Istanbul. Tous les autres sont restés pour découvrir le documentaire de Serge Avédikian, réalisateur français d'origine arménienne, qui a filmé son retour dans le village natal de son grand-père, déporté en 1915. Dans l'ouest de la Turquie, Sölöz est aujourd'hui peuplé par des Slaves islamisés qui y ont échoué lors des échanges de population forcés avec la Grèce en 1923. Du génocide, ils n'ont donc rien vu, rien entendu, hormis la version négationniste de l'État turc. Mais les grandes bâtisses désertes trouvées à leur arrivée murmurent une autre histoire. Sur les pierres tombales, précieusement conservées au fond d'une grange ou reconverties en clôtures, on peut lire, encore, des épitaphes en arménien : « Dors doucement mon fils. » À Sölöz, villageois et fantômes se croisent dans les ruelles et parfois, les certitudes vacillent. « Les informations que nous avons sur le passé ne sont pas claires », pressent le jeune Hamit, face à la caméra.

Nous avons bu la même eau a été projeté à l'occasion du festival « 1 001 films documentaires », la semaine dernière sur les rives du Bosphore. « Il a été sélectionné par des Turcs, la démarche est courageuse, le montrer en Turquie est un symbole très fort », salue Serge Avédikian, venu présenter son film, pour établir le dialogue et un jour, pouvoir « partager nos mémoires ». « Je mesure l'ampleur de la tâche : énorme. Mais, ça y est, la boîte de l'histoire est ouverte. »

Cette invitation à se pencher sur le passé arménien de la Turquie n'est pas isolée. De plus en plus d'intellectuels turcs mettent au jour les non-dits du passé et bousculent l'histoire officielle. Avec un objectif commun : regarder en face les massacres commis sous l'Empire ottoman afin de pacifier le présent. En 2005, le vent de liberté apporté par l'ouverture des négociations d'adhésion à l'Union européenne avait permis aux universitaires turcs de faire sauter le tabou sur le génocide.

« Soi-disant » génocide

Dès sa parution, Le Livre de ma grand-mère a aussitôt été un best-seller : dans ce récit autobiographique, l'avocate turque Fethiye Cetin racontait que son aïeule lui avait révélé ses origines arméniennes avant de mourir. Mais c'est l'assassinat en janvier 2007 de Hrant Dink, journaliste turc d'origine arménienne, qui a provoqué un électrochoc. « Tout le monde a vu son corps, étendu sur le trottoir, ses chaussures qui dépassaient du drap blanc, analyse Altug Yilmaz, rédacteur en chef à Agos, le journal créé par Hrant Dink. Avec cette image, si forte, douter de sa sincérité devenait impossible. »

Ece Temelkuran, journaliste vedette en Turquie, revendique cette filiation : « Je suis une héritière de Hrant Dink. » Dans La Profondeur du mont Ararat, la jeune femme relate sa plongée dans le monde arménien : sa visite au mémorial du génocide à Erevan, ses rencontres avec la diaspora, de Paris à Los Angeles. « J'ai voulu questionner le silence qui règne en Turquie sur ce sujet, notre aveuglement, alors que nous habitons des lieux où des Arméniens ont vécu, nous remémorer ce que nous savons déjà, mais que l'ont nous a fait oublier. »

Pour Ece Temelkuran, « le seul moyen de résoudre la question arménienne en Turquie est d'en faire une question personnelle, aider chacun à mener ce que j'appelle son archéologie personnelle afin de dépasser le point de vue étatique ». Paru fin mai, le récit de son voyage initiatique s'est déjà vendu à 30 000 exemplaires.

Pourtant, le déni de l'État sur la planification des massacres ne se fissure toujours pas (voir ci-contre). On parle toujours de « soi-disant » génocide et les Arméniens n'existent pas dans les livres d'histoire, sauf comme ennemis. Ce discours a semble-t-il glissé sur Geben, bourgade perdue des monts Taurus. Dans Le Chuchotement des mémoires, Mehmet Binay a filmé une jeune fille qui n'ignore rien du sang mélangé coulant dans ses veines. Génération après génération, l'histoire s'est diluée. À la question « Pourquoi les Arméniens sont-ils partis ? », les réponses des villageois sont évasives. Exceptée celle de l'imam centenaire. « Les Arméniens ? L'État les a déportés. » Étonnamment, ce documentaire, dédié « A ceux qui sont restés derrière » n'a soulevé aucune polémique lors de sa diffusion sur la chaîne de télévision CNN-Türk. « Le discours officiel n'est pas trop arrivé jusqu'à Geben et les gens vivent naturellement avec le passé, analyse Mehmet Binay. Cela me donne de l'espoir. »

Cet hiver, un film réalisé par une équipe mixte doit être tourné le long de la rivière Araxe, qui sépare les deux pays. Le dégel du cours d'eau au printemps symbolisera le réchauffement des relations alors que la frontière est toujours fermée. Les acteurs seront des Arméniens et des Turcs vivant de part et d'autre des miradors.

Turkish filmmaker's documentary provides fresh look at history

Turkish filmmaker's documentary provides fresh look at history

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Young documentary filmmaker and journalist Mehmet Binay’s “Whispering Memories” handles the story of Armenians who stayed rather than left during the incidents of 1915. Looking at the historical events from a fresh point-of-view, Binay’s film has been screened at the Golden Apricot Film Festival in Armenian capital Yerevan, attracting much interest

YASEMİN SİM ESMEN
ISTANBUL – Turkish Daily News

  A lot has been said about Armenians who left their homes in 1915, but not much has been said about those who stayed. It is this often overlooked aspect that documentary filmmaker and journalist Mehmet Binay tackles in a new film, “Whispering Memories.”

  “Today, we need to prove that we do care about our past and we are ready to confess [our] mistakes, whatever geopolitical reason they might have had. I think filmmaking is a great way to reconcile with Armenians, who are an important part of our imperial past,” said Binay in an interview with the Turkish Daily News. He added that the events of 1915 resulted in a majority of Anatolian Armenians being wiped out from their ancestral homeland. “A significant cultural, social and economic element of our society was taken out of Turkey's mosaic, which we kept mentioning as a stronghold of our culture and identity throughout the centuries. 1915 was a terrible human disaster causing economic, social and political imbalances in eastern Turkey, while its effects still dominate our problems there.”

  Binay comes from a family that migrated to modern-day Turkey from their ancestral land in the Balkans. With stories of migration in his past and a fascination with the richness of history and the mystery of eastern Turkey, Binay has traveled extensively in eastern Anatolia. “Its authenticity, complexity and the sorrow in people's eyes had been striking me while I was on my photographic journeys along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline, which I've documented extensively since the 1990s,” said the filmmaker.

  

Discovering a unique village

  It was during this journey that he came across ancient gravestones located in many spots in the village of Geben in the Taurus Mountains of Kahramanmaraş province. “[They] had struck me with their unknown origin and the sheer size of them standing up against time,” said Binay. “Whispering Memories” developed from a number of visits by the filmmaker to Geben, where village youngsters showed a desire to learn about their local history and, while investigating, came across Armenians who used to live in the area widely until 1915. “Some of the witnesses of this era and members of the Oral History Project were saying that some people in this village are the descendants of converted Armenians who either silently or by force became Muslims to be able to avoid deportation in 1915,” said Binay.

   “Whispering Memories” brings a fresh look at the facts, wrote Taraf columnist Amberin Zaman.

  “My initial journalistic instinct told me to keep a distance to these rural historic conversations by using the camera as an observer only,” said the filmmaker, who decided not to lead the interviews but just to listen to them in order to sustain objectivity. The documentary's producer and drama advisor, Caner Alper, then helped establish strong cinematographic links between the conversations and the filmmakers by integrating a three-day rural wedding into the visual story and having it serve as a leitmotif throughout the film.

  Binay said he believes that honesty and neutrality are the strongholds of “Whispering Memories.” “We are able to understand economic and social links between Armenians and Turks prior to 1915 thanks to sincere conversations between village elders and youngsters,” he said. He said he believes that the wedding, the story of which is told in the film, helps viewers understand that story of “The Converts,” as marriage is a perfect way to mix different cultures, ethnicities and religions.

  “Yet memories remain and live throughout generations if not condemned or discriminated just because of their being different. This is exactly how this small village in the Taurus Mountains was able to develop a liberal, open and peaceful society without getting too much polarized throughout the 20th century. Geben is a perfect example of how different roots and cultures can live peacefully together or side by side even today,” added Binay.

  “Whispering Memories” was filmed over two years. The wedding was filmed in 2006, while preparations for rural history conversations were filmed in 2007. It took both Binay and village youngsters much effort and time to convince people to speak about those times in an open and frank way. Shooting the film in two years had some drawbacks and difficulties. “Village youngsters leading oral history conversations were present at the wedding a year ago but they'd grown up or changed, so we needed to make sure the audience didn't feel disturbed by those visual changes. The entire filming process required a lot of planning regarding time and lighting so we could fit those different segments in a natural flow,” Binay said.

  The documentary was broadcasted on the Turkish news channel CNN-Türk on June 27, 2008, prior to its screening in the Golden Apricot Film Festival. In the period leading up to the documentary's broadcast on CNN-Türk, the documentary's makers set up a blog, a Web site, and a group on social networking Web site Facebook. Binay said the audience in Turkey was generally impressed by the objectivity and the lyrical flow of the storyline. “I received feedback from Turkish historians appreciating our work to find out honest and open remarks about 1915,” he said and added, “I also think documentaries are a popular and successful way to convey facts and figures about our history to the general public.”

  The film's two screenings in Yerevan drew attention and the audience requested a long question and answer sessions afterwards, during which Binay was asked whether he was scared to film such a documentary in Turkey. “They also asked me why I filmed this documentary as a filmmaker with no Armenian or eastern roots. Armenians today do not know modern Turkey besides the fact that intellectuals such as Hrant Dink can be killed by ultra-nationalists simply by talking about the Turkish identity and accepting 1915 as genocide. They do not expect Turkish filmmakers to make fair and objective films or documentaries about 1915,” said Binay. He said “Whispering Memories” impressed the Armenian audience in Yerevan by providing a fair and objective look into historical events.

  “Also some people in the audience [in Yerevan] told their own memories of converted grandmothers and other family members. They got very sentimental at certain points but they also laughed a lot during some of the wedding scenes,” said Binay.

© 2005 Dogan Daily News Inc. www.turkishdailynews.com.tr

WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

WHISPERING MEMORIES AND PREJUDICES BROKEN WITH ART

Amberin Zaman
TARAF Newspaper
Yerevan

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Mehmet Binay is a young Turkish filmmaker who has broken the rule of learned lines and established bridges between our hearts. His documentary film “WHISPERING MEMORIES”; which was broadcasted on CNN Turk last week, reached the Armenian audience at the Golden Apricot International Film Festival in Yerevan, Armenia. Binay, who produced successful documentaries at the Turkish news channel NTV for many years, is calling his new film an “Oral History Project” in which he tells the story of Armenians who during the atrocities of 1915 stayed behind and silently became Muslims. Those Armenians, who are called “The Converts” say that they also feel as “Turks” but they know that they are different and believe there is nothing wrong with that.

Filmmaker Binay says in a recent interview: “I was curious to know what they remembered, forgot about these years and how willing they were to remember the things from the past.” Binay fascinated the Armenian audience with his affectionate yet simple cinematographic language without politicisation and looking refuge in exaggerated sentimentality. Binay took the screening of WHISPERING MEMORIES one step further during the Q&A’s calmly with a good humour and talked about the recent changes in Turkey in a relaxed and sincere attitude.

Binay summarised his feelings about his visit to Armenia as: “WHISPERING MEMORIES’ arrival in Armenia had a two-fold significance for me. Firstly, the Armenian audience would be able to see how we, as neighbours of Armenians in our land, remember common life in the past. Secondly they would see the difficulties of some of the Armenians (who stayed and became Muslims) faced after they remained in Anatolia. Even though one can hardly hear whispered memories, it becomes hard to forget them because those are the stories of people who’d been living in this land for thousands of years and their traces are present ‘between the lines.’ I think my message was well received in Yerevan who watched WHISPERING MEMORIES at the Golden Apricot Festival. I may have saddened my audience in some instances but I also know that I was able to make them smile.”

.......

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, SANATLA KIRILAN ONYARGILAR

Amberin Zaman
TARAF GAZETESI
ERİVAN

Sevgili Hrant’la son günlerinde dostluk kuran, uluslararası prestije sahip, araştırmacı, yazar, oyuncu ve film yapımcısı Nouritza Matossian sayesinde Hrant’ı çok daha yakından tanıdık. Matossian, Hrant ile ölümünden birkaç yıl önce tanışmış. Kendisinden o kadar etkilenmiş ki, kimisi İstanbul’da, kimisi Londra’da olmak üzere, uzun uzun mülâkatlar yapıp hepsini kameraya kaydetmiş. İyi ki de yapmış. Hrant’ın katledilişinin ardından bunlardan ayıkladığı fragmanları birbirine örüp Hrant Dink: One Heart Two Nations (Hrant Dink: Tek Yürek, İki Ulus) adında sarsıcı bir belgesele imza atmış.

Matossian’ın filmi beş gündür Erivan’da süren Altın Kayısı Film Festivali’nde gösterildi. Mekân ufaktı, konu büyük, duygular yoğun. Filmin başından sonuna kadar Hrant anlatıyor... Çocukluğunu, Tuzla kampını, Rakel’i, çocuklarını, Türk dostlarını, Agos’u, Türkiye’de Ermeni olmanın sıkıntılarını, verdiği mücadeleyi, ve tabii ki kendisine açılan davaları, yöneltilen tehditleri...

Hrant’ı biz hep Türkçe dinlemiştik. Pekâlâ, bir soydaşı ile konuşurken farklı şeyler mi söylüyordu? Türkiye’yi karalıyor muydu? Asla... Hrant hep aynı Hrant. Açık sözlü, yürekli, sevecen, uzlaştırıcı, duygusal, çocuksu, coşkulu, umutlu, ve ülkesi Türkiye’ye karşı zaman zaman buruk da olsa müthiş sevgi dolu. Filmin bitişinde söz alan Matossian diyor ki: “Hrant Türkler ve Ermeniler hakkında bana açık açık önyargısız konuşan ilk insandı. Türklere Ermeniliğin kötü bir şey olmadığını anlatmak istiyordu.” Ama aynı zamanda Hrant yılmadan Ermenilere de Türklerin kötü olmadığını anlatmak için çabalıyordu.

Aslında Matossian da bu filmi üzerinden Ermenistanlı seyircilerine aynı mesajı veriyor. Türkler canavar değil. Bu Matossian’ın özel tarihi açısından da önemli bir eşik sayılmalı. Zira Kıbrıs Rum kesiminde doğan Matossian tehcirle birlikte memleketi Antep’ten sürülen bir ailenin kızı. Resmî tarihimizin sansürlediği hikâyelerle büyümüş. Matossian’ın en önemli eseri, 1915’te yaşananlara tanık olan ve kaçıp yerleştiği Amerika’da intihar eden Ermeni ressam Arşil Gorki hakkında kaleme aldığı Black Angel, A Life of Arshil Gorky. “Ben Hrant’ı tanımadan önce Türkiye ve Türkler hakkında çok farklı fikirlere sahiptim,” itirafında bulunuyor Matossian. Bu arada seyircilerden biri soruyor: “Hrant Dink’in cenazesinde yürüyen Türkler ‘Hepimiz Ermeniyiz’ derken gerçekten samimiler miydi.” “Evet” cevabını [bizden] alınca, şaşırıyor.

Ermenistan’da ezber bozan, gönül köprüleri kuran diğer film yapımcısı genç bir Türk: Mehmet Binay. Geçtiğimiz hafta CNN Türk’te yayımlanan belgeseli Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar festival kapsamında Ermenistanlı seyircilerle buluştu. NTV’de uzun yıllar başarılı belgesellere imza atmış olan Binay, “Sözlü Tarih” projesi olarak tarif ettiği bu çalışmasında, 1915 olaylarında Toroslar’da bir dağ köyünde kalan, Müslümanlaşan Ermenilerle tanıştırıyor bizleri. “Dönek” olarak anılan Ermeniler kendilerini “Türk” hissetliklerini ancak “farklı” olduklarını da bildiklerini, bunun da aslında “kötü bir şey” olmadığını söylüyorlar. Binay, yakın zamanda verdiği bir röportajda diyor ki: “Benim merak ettiğim, onların neyi hatırladıkları, neyi unuttukları ve unuttuklarını hatırlamaya ne kadar gönüllü olduklarıydı.” Binay, siyasete hiç bulaşmadan, duygusallığa sığınmadan, yalın ama sıcak sinema diliyle, Ermenistanlı seyircileri büyüledi, şaşırttı. Filmin ardından konuşan Binay rahat ve samimi tavırları ile gösterimi farklı bir boyuta taşıdı, Türkiye’deki değişimi sakin sakin güler yüzle anlattı.

Binay kendi duygularını ise şöyle özetledi bize: “Anadolu’dan Fısıltılar’ın Ermenistan’a ulaşması benim için iki açıdan önemliydi. Birincisi; bıraktıkları topraklarda komşuları olan bizler onları nasıl hatırlıyor, onu tüm yalınlığıyla görebileceklerdi. İkincisi de; onlardan geriye kalan insanlar nasıl yaşadılar, ne tür zorluklar çektiler bunu öğreneceklerdi. Fısıltılar güçlükle duyulsa bile insanın aklından kolay kolay çıkmıyor, çünkü onlar binlerce yıldır Anadolu’da yaşayan insanların öyküsü ve izleri de satır aralarında hissediliyor. Sanırım Erivan’da filmi izleyenler vermek istediğim bu mesajı aldılar. Onları biraz üzdüysem, biraz da sevindirebildiğimi düşünüyorum.”

Bu arada Anadolu Kültür’den sevgili Çiğdem Mater’in festival boyunca Türkiye-Ermenistan ilişkilerine sunduğu katkısından söz etmeden geçemiyeceğim. Darısı devlet büyüklerimizin başına.

WHISPERING MEMORIES goes to Oslo, NORWAY

Proud to announce that WHISPERING MEMORIES has been accepted to the official selection of "The Oslo Films from the South Festival", taking place in Oslo, Norway October 9-19 2008.

The 18th annual Films from the South Festival is screening approx. 130 films, carefully selected from current productions in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This will be the first time WHISPERING MEMORIES will meet an international group of people in Scandinavia as well as other filmmakers from Asia, Africa and Latin America.

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, Oslo - Norvec yolunda

ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR, 9-19 Ekim 2008 tarihleri arasında Norveç'in başkenti Oslo'da gerçekleştirilecek olan Güney'den Filmler Festivali'ne kabul edildi.

18. Oslo Festivali'nde bu yıl Asya, Afrika ve Latin Amerika'dan yaklaşık 130 film gösterilecek. ANADOLU'DAN FISILTILAR da bu filmler arasında izlenebilecek. Bu sayede İskandinavya'daki sinema endüstrisi ile belgesel ekipleriyle tanışmayı ve filmimizi daha geniş bir kitleye tanıtmayı amaçlıyoruz.