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D.C. SHORTS FILM FESTIVAL: "ZIAZAN," AN ARMENIAN GIRL'S ADVENTURE IN GEOPOLITICS
Washington Post
Sept 12 2014
By Celia Wren September 12 at 11:15 AM
Sometimes chocolate speaks of geopolitics. It does just that in Turkish
director Derya Durmaz's film "Ziazan," part of the D.C. Shorts Film
Festival.
In the 15-minute movie -- which has screening dates through Sept. 15 --
a 4-year-old Armenian girl stows away in the enormous suitcase of her
uncle, a traveling merchant who has brought her Turkish chocolate in
the past. She is greedy for more. International tensions turn Ziazan's
surreptitious journey into a pint-size version of "The Odyssey."
Because of a closed border between Armenia and Turkey (which have
a history of troubled relations), her uncle regularly has to take
36-hour detour through another country, Georgia, to obtain his Turkish
merchandise. This time, even that strategy may falter.
Speaking by phone from Istanbul, where she's based,
actress-turned-filmmaker Durmaz, 41, recalls reading a 2011 news report
about a circuitous trans-Georgia route that was de rigueur for vendors
traveling between Armenia and Turkey. "I thought this was very ironic
and absurd," she says. After all, "if you go to eastern Turkey and
stand close to the border and yell," you can be heard in Armenia.
These reflections eventually generated "Ziazan," which is "a short
film for those who believe in a world without borders," she remarks
in a post-interview e-mail.
She developed the film project with assistance from the Armenia-Turkey
Cinema Platform, an organization that was launched by cinema lovers in
the two nations and whose aims include promoting mutual understanding.
All the "Ziazan" filming was done in Armenia, and Durmaz's partners
in that country helped set up kindergarten visits so that she could
scout for likely young actors. (Chubby-cheeked Emy Vardanian eventually
landed the title role.) Her Armenian colleagues also translated her
script (which she had written in English) into Armenian; she created
Turkish subtitles for Turkish-speaking audiences.
The shoot, in the summer of 2013, coincided with protests over plans
to raze a park in Istanbul -- protests that tested the government
of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is now Turkey's
president. A police crackdown on the demonstrators turned violent.
The Turkish nationals involved in the "Ziazan" film were all too
aware of those events. "It was very emotional for us to be away from
Istanbul, being at the set all day, then coming home late at night
to follow, on social media, the violent crackdown on protests,"
Durmaz says.
International cooperation on the movie didn't end with the Armenia
shoot. At the age of 18, as an exchange student in the United States,
Durmaz had made friends with people from around the world. When she
wanted to submit "Ziazan" to a Spanish festival and needed subtitles
in Spanish, a plea for help via social media resulted in contacts
she has in the Dominican Republic, Spain, Venezuela and elsewhere
crowdsourcing the project.
"There is this quote of my favorite novelist, Tom Robbins: 'Our
similarities bring us to a common ground; our differences allow us
to be fascinated by each other,' " says Durmaz, who is scheduled to
be Washington when the film is screened. "Even when we think we are
so different from each other, we experience so many similar things
in this life. And, yes, I really do agree that our differences bring
such richness of perspective into each other's lives."
The "Ziazan" screenings join an array of offerings scheduled for
Turkish Cultural Heritage Month, a celebration organized by the
American Turkish Association of Washington, D.C., in partnership with
other entities. Also on the lineup for the month: Turkish Heritage
Weekend at the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center in Northern Virginia
(Sept. 12-14) and the 12th D.C. Turkish Festival on Sept. 28 on
Pennsylvania Avenue. By the way, that chocolate theme in "Ziazan"? It
may have something to do with Durmaz's own sweet tooth. "I'm a fan
of all sorts of desserts," she confesses.
'Artistic interplay
"It's a synesthesia experience."
That's one phrase Erik Spangler, a Baltimore composer and electronic
musician, uses to describe his collaboration with Austrian artist
Astrid Rieder. On Sept. 24, at the Austrian Cultural Forum, they will
stage an example of the performance genre Rieder calls "Trans Art."
Using electronic instruments, such as a Kaoss Pad, Spangler (a.k.a. DJ
Dubble8) will improvise a score that draws on some of his past
compositions. Rieder will draw abstract images with various pens,
pencils or colored crayons, depending on the music. Each artist will
respond to the other in real time.
Trans Art consists of "interplay between contemporary art forms,
which results in an intensified overall experience for the audience,"
Rieder explains in an e-mail.
Spangler, speaking by phone from Baltimore, says: "Sound and image are
being organically connected and moving together, [yet] at the same
time responding to each other and creating an immersive landscape
for the audience. Hopefully, it's a contemplative act for Astrid and
I, and for the audience as well."(Baltimore is scheduled to host a
Rieder-Spangler performance Sept. 25; the two artists will also take
their act to New York, for performances Sept. 27 and 28.)
Rieder, who is based in Salzburg, has been working in Trans Art's
boundary-crossing vein since 1993, when she started drawing to the
sounds of John Cage and Morton Feldman in a workshop run by Wolfgang
Seierl, a Vienna-born composer, musician and visual artist.
Her goal --"inspired only by contemporary music," she says -- is
to move audiences beyond conventional ways of thinking about and
pigeonholing art. Audiences at past concerts, she says, have told her,
"When I see you drawing, I better understand these sounds!"
She hastens to note that she is far from the only artist to marry
brands of creativity in this way. "But almost no one sticks to it as
incessantly as I do!" she says.
D.C. Shorts Film Festival. Various locations, Sept. 11-21. Visit
www.festival.dcshorts.com.
"Trans Art." Sept. 24 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 3524
International Pl. NW. Also, Sept. 25 at Gallery 788, 3602 Hickory
Avenue, Baltimore. Visit www.acfdc.org.
Wren is a freelance writer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/dc-shorts-film-festival-ziazan-an-armenian-girls-adventure-in-geopolitics/2014/09/11/cc1f7c46-377f-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html
From: Baghdasarian
Washington Post
Sept 12 2014
By Celia Wren September 12 at 11:15 AM
Sometimes chocolate speaks of geopolitics. It does just that in Turkish
director Derya Durmaz's film "Ziazan," part of the D.C. Shorts Film
Festival.
In the 15-minute movie -- which has screening dates through Sept. 15 --
a 4-year-old Armenian girl stows away in the enormous suitcase of her
uncle, a traveling merchant who has brought her Turkish chocolate in
the past. She is greedy for more. International tensions turn Ziazan's
surreptitious journey into a pint-size version of "The Odyssey."
Because of a closed border between Armenia and Turkey (which have
a history of troubled relations), her uncle regularly has to take
36-hour detour through another country, Georgia, to obtain his Turkish
merchandise. This time, even that strategy may falter.
Speaking by phone from Istanbul, where she's based,
actress-turned-filmmaker Durmaz, 41, recalls reading a 2011 news report
about a circuitous trans-Georgia route that was de rigueur for vendors
traveling between Armenia and Turkey. "I thought this was very ironic
and absurd," she says. After all, "if you go to eastern Turkey and
stand close to the border and yell," you can be heard in Armenia.
These reflections eventually generated "Ziazan," which is "a short
film for those who believe in a world without borders," she remarks
in a post-interview e-mail.
She developed the film project with assistance from the Armenia-Turkey
Cinema Platform, an organization that was launched by cinema lovers in
the two nations and whose aims include promoting mutual understanding.
All the "Ziazan" filming was done in Armenia, and Durmaz's partners
in that country helped set up kindergarten visits so that she could
scout for likely young actors. (Chubby-cheeked Emy Vardanian eventually
landed the title role.) Her Armenian colleagues also translated her
script (which she had written in English) into Armenian; she created
Turkish subtitles for Turkish-speaking audiences.
The shoot, in the summer of 2013, coincided with protests over plans
to raze a park in Istanbul -- protests that tested the government
of then-Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is now Turkey's
president. A police crackdown on the demonstrators turned violent.
The Turkish nationals involved in the "Ziazan" film were all too
aware of those events. "It was very emotional for us to be away from
Istanbul, being at the set all day, then coming home late at night
to follow, on social media, the violent crackdown on protests,"
Durmaz says.
International cooperation on the movie didn't end with the Armenia
shoot. At the age of 18, as an exchange student in the United States,
Durmaz had made friends with people from around the world. When she
wanted to submit "Ziazan" to a Spanish festival and needed subtitles
in Spanish, a plea for help via social media resulted in contacts
she has in the Dominican Republic, Spain, Venezuela and elsewhere
crowdsourcing the project.
"There is this quote of my favorite novelist, Tom Robbins: 'Our
similarities bring us to a common ground; our differences allow us
to be fascinated by each other,' " says Durmaz, who is scheduled to
be Washington when the film is screened. "Even when we think we are
so different from each other, we experience so many similar things
in this life. And, yes, I really do agree that our differences bring
such richness of perspective into each other's lives."
The "Ziazan" screenings join an array of offerings scheduled for
Turkish Cultural Heritage Month, a celebration organized by the
American Turkish Association of Washington, D.C., in partnership with
other entities. Also on the lineup for the month: Turkish Heritage
Weekend at the Plaza at Tysons Corner Center in Northern Virginia
(Sept. 12-14) and the 12th D.C. Turkish Festival on Sept. 28 on
Pennsylvania Avenue. By the way, that chocolate theme in "Ziazan"? It
may have something to do with Durmaz's own sweet tooth. "I'm a fan
of all sorts of desserts," she confesses.
'Artistic interplay
"It's a synesthesia experience."
That's one phrase Erik Spangler, a Baltimore composer and electronic
musician, uses to describe his collaboration with Austrian artist
Astrid Rieder. On Sept. 24, at the Austrian Cultural Forum, they will
stage an example of the performance genre Rieder calls "Trans Art."
Using electronic instruments, such as a Kaoss Pad, Spangler (a.k.a. DJ
Dubble8) will improvise a score that draws on some of his past
compositions. Rieder will draw abstract images with various pens,
pencils or colored crayons, depending on the music. Each artist will
respond to the other in real time.
Trans Art consists of "interplay between contemporary art forms,
which results in an intensified overall experience for the audience,"
Rieder explains in an e-mail.
Spangler, speaking by phone from Baltimore, says: "Sound and image are
being organically connected and moving together, [yet] at the same
time responding to each other and creating an immersive landscape
for the audience. Hopefully, it's a contemplative act for Astrid and
I, and for the audience as well."(Baltimore is scheduled to host a
Rieder-Spangler performance Sept. 25; the two artists will also take
their act to New York, for performances Sept. 27 and 28.)
Rieder, who is based in Salzburg, has been working in Trans Art's
boundary-crossing vein since 1993, when she started drawing to the
sounds of John Cage and Morton Feldman in a workshop run by Wolfgang
Seierl, a Vienna-born composer, musician and visual artist.
Her goal --"inspired only by contemporary music," she says -- is
to move audiences beyond conventional ways of thinking about and
pigeonholing art. Audiences at past concerts, she says, have told her,
"When I see you drawing, I better understand these sounds!"
She hastens to note that she is far from the only artist to marry
brands of creativity in this way. "But almost no one sticks to it as
incessantly as I do!" she says.
D.C. Shorts Film Festival. Various locations, Sept. 11-21. Visit
www.festival.dcshorts.com.
"Trans Art." Sept. 24 at the Austrian Cultural Forum, 3524
International Pl. NW. Also, Sept. 25 at Gallery 788, 3602 Hickory
Avenue, Baltimore. Visit www.acfdc.org.
Wren is a freelance writer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/dc-shorts-film-festival-ziazan-an-armenian-girls-adventure-in-geopolitics/2014/09/11/cc1f7c46-377f-11e4-a023-1d61f7f31a05_story.html
From: Baghdasarian