What is !f2?
!f2 is an experiment.
The first of its kind in the world, !f2 is an effort to build local and transnational partnerships to enable festival films to reach wider audiences across different geographies and start new conversations.
On February 20-21st, during the 9th !f istanbul AFM International Independent Film Festival, audiences in Istanbul will be joined audiences around Turkey, as well as in Yerevan (Armenia), Tblisi (Georgia), Ramallah (Palestine) and Tangiers (Morocco) to watch five much-anticipated festival titles.
These five films are united by the novelty of approach and voice they bring to the changing geographies and maps of our times. They also hint at new possibilities of togetherness and changing power relations which might emerge from economic and environmental crises, rapidly developing technologies and changing mind-sets.
In addition to Q & A sessions with representatives of the films following the screenings, the project will conclude on Sunday evening with a debate on “Changing Territories, New Tribes” that will be broadcast live via the web.
We know that the kind of films we like to program have audiences outside Istanbul, in the many smaller cities of Anatolia and other countries nearby.
So we asked our partners in these locations – arts initiatives, university film clubs, unions, small cinemas and cultural organisations- to organise around this event.
These partners will create centers where new discussions around contemporary cinema can emerge. Fostering a vibrant sense of community in each location is crucial to the success of this experiment.
This might in turn pave the way for more substantive partnerships that would allow us to share a wider variety of alternative content in the future.
Why !f2?
Our aim as a festival has always been to curate a wide variety of films from around the world that open different windows onto the world and to offer that selection to as broad an audience as possible. We hope to be able to provoke novel inquiries and engage in new conversations.
Today, digital technologies allow us to travel vast distances, unweighted by the reels and canisters which make transporting 35mm prints both slow and costly. It is both easy and feasible now to share films without compromising on visual quality.
On the other hand, the economic crisis has made it even harder for alternative films to find a place in traditional distribution schemes. Arthouse titles and documentaries are finding it increasingly more difficult to find theatrical screening space.
Our goal is to be able to be able to share the joy of these films with audiences who might not otherwise have access to them, thanks to the organic partnerships that have emerged. We hope this new way of organising will allow us to build new audiences.
We hope then to be able to watch the best of contemporary cinema together.
As we search for ways to extend our network and build new partnerships, cinema points to a new channel of communication.
!f2 - with whom?
At the heart of !f2 is its partners.
This project is only possible because of our partner institutions and individuals who are committed to excellence in film, eager for new ways to share this passion and willing to try something new.
First, The Auteurs. Based in the US, The Auteurs has rapidly established itself as one of the world’s premier websites devoted to cinema. Our friends there helped us develop the project and suggested ways in which we could set up a digital infrastructure to enable it.
International distributors. The world’s leading distribution companies took a leap of faith and signed onto this vision of the future. Our international partners, Celluloid Dreams, Wild Bunch, Norwegian Film Institute, Arts Alliance Media and Films Boutique provided the titles which made this vision possible.
!f2 City Partners. Our friends in different cities helped create new centers for alternative film in places far from Istanbul. These might be the first contact points for a new distribution network.
- Antakya /Saklı Ev Culture Café
- Alanya / Alanya Cinematheque Association
- Ayvalık / Santimetre
- Batman / Municipal Culture and Tourism Directorate & Batman Culture and Arts Association
- Çanakkale /Yalı Hanı Station Culture Center / ÇABİSAK
- Diyarbakır/ Diyarbakır Culture Center, Europe Cinema
- Eskişehir /Cinema Anadolu/ Anadolu University Communication Faculty
- Lefkoşa - Cyprus/ Sidestreets Educational and Cultural Initiatives
- Mersin/ Mersin University, Prof. Dr. Uğur Oral Conferance Room
- Muğla /Gümüşlük Academy
- Samsun /Atakum Municipal Education Center, Society Volunteers Foundation (TOG) İğne Deliği Youth Center
- Van/ Vatso (Van Chamber of Commerce) Meeting Room Toplantı Salonu/ Van Kadın Derneği
- Gymri / Armenia City Research Center
- Ramallah/ Palestine (TBC) Al Quds University
- Tangiers/ Morocco Cinematheque De Tanger
And of course, our thanks to Anadolu Kültür and ArteEast, whose expertise in Turkey and the region helped us immensely in facilitating these partnerships.
!f2 - what are the questions on our minds?
- *Against a backdrop of economic and environmental crises, how can we map the possibilities and partnerships of an increasingly integrated world?
- *How do we become active within this new world map?
- *Does the same relentless capitalist appetite for subsuming new geographies as markets simultaneously open up possibilities for a counter-resistance?
- *How can we make the new possibilities for conversation that Internet-based means of communication create, less fragile?
- *Is there a poetics to politics?
- *And: is there hope?
!f2 - why these five films?
We selected these films in keeping with the project’s theme of inquiring into the borders and boundaries of our lives, as well as the possibility for new forms of collaboration.
Age of Stupid has become a global phenomenon and a key driver of the worldwide environmental campaign for change. It is a last-resort plea addressed to inhabitants of an era in which failing to recognise the integral ways in which we and the planet are all connected could spell the end of our species.
Bawke and Winterland herald the arrival of an exciting new voice in contemporary cinema. Hisham Zaman, a Norwegian filmmaker of Kurdish origin, weaves tales of people who are far from their own land. His exquisitely detailed films are about being neither here, nor there. Or, on the contrary, they are about being both here and there.
She, a Chinese is about the journey of a young woman from a Chinese village who eventually ends up in London. The film has a lightness of touch and a sense of forward momentum that resonates deeply with the contemporary cross-cultural rhythms of our lives. This is a story beyond borders which addresses issues of identity, leaving and longing in a globalized world.
A Prophet -the year’s most talked about European film- speaks to us from behind prison walls. It takes place in southern France, in a prison where hardly any French is spoken. Yet the gripping struggle for power played out in this small universe manages to perfectly and powerfully encapsulate similar struggles across our brutalised world.
Nobody Cares About Persian Cats. In restless Iran, the possibilities of borderless communication come up against all too real boundaries. Bahman Ghobadi creates a vibrant portrait of hundreds of Tehran youths, connected to the world via Twitter, borrowed copies of NME and rock music, yet unable to travel.
