Immediate Release
http://www.lightmillennium.org
April 2, 2006 - New York

A Celebration of the Light Millennium's 6th Anniversary
In collaboration with Columbia University

On TIME, CULTURE & CITIES
6 Short Turkish Documentaries on Time, Culture & Cities
-- For Biography and Filmography of the Directors>
Special Screening

Date: On Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Time: 6:30 - 9:00 PM

Venue: Columbia University,
International Affairs Building, Room# 403
At the corner of Amsterdam Avenue and 118th Street.
New York

Title of the event: On TIME, CULTURE & CITIES
6 Short Turkish Documentaries from Turkey...
Total duration of the documentaries ~ 60-65 minutes

Sponsored by: Turkish Initiative and Turkish Student Association of Columbia University.
Co-sponsored by: Middle East Institute of Columbia University
Organized: Light Millennium Organization
Event Producer: Bircan Unver

Contact or for more information:
Bircan Ünver, Producer of the event
E-mail: bircanunver@lightmillennium.org
http://www.lightmillennium.org
http://www.isikbinyili.org
For Direction - Jeanene Mitchell at Columbia University:
E-mail: jmm2170@columbia.edu

For the 6^th Anniversary of the Light Millennium, we are proud to present 6 Turkish well accomplished directors' short documentaries follow by a mini-panel and Q & A session at Columbia University on Tuesday, April 11, 2006 at 6:30 PM.

Some of the feature documentaries which are in the program were summarized for this special event for the general context of "Time, Culture & Cities". This special screening will be a great opportunity to all students, academicians as well as all cross-cultural interested people to see these short documentaries from diversity approaches in terms of concept and style as well as to meet with the 6 Turkish guest producer & directors as Mustafa ÜNLÜ, Nurdan ARCA, Sehbal SENYURT, Murad ÖZDEMIR, Ersan OCAK and Ozgur E. ARIK
from Turkey who will be in New York City just for 3 days.

-- The special screening is free of charge to ALL students, academicians as well as all interested general public.

WELCOME TO ALL...

BRIEF INFORMATION ABOUT THE SHORT DOCUMENTARIES:

1) THE OLD TOWN'S NEWSMEN
Director: Mustafa ÜNLÜ
Producer: Selda Meral
Music: Emrah Özdemir - Michael Sapp
Camera and Editing: Mustafa Ünlü
Production Company: Kutup Ayisi Documentary Productions
Year of Production: 2006
Original Length: 70 Minutes
-- A summary of the feature documentary will be shown.

"The Old Town's Newsmen", is the story of a people that Istanbul has begun to lose over the last century.  It is the story of the remnants of formerly warm relations that prevailed before war, battles, international and societal tensions intervened.  The film is the story of the cultural pluralism, social tolerance and communication of the previous century.  It is a priceless collection of life that will endure for 10 or 20 more years at most.

The 80 year-old Apoyevmatini newspaper is hand delivered individually to the door of each recipient by a 70 year-old deliveryman.  The Greek population of Istanbul is within the pages of this newspaper.  Life, names, death all flow in between those four pages.  Only hope remains.

Life in Istanbul is normal; relations are taking their natural course.  At most, there is a little extra melancholy and nostalgia, not just in the hearts of "Old Istanbul" residents, but in the hearts of everyone who believes in the virtue of living together in harmony, and those who want to slow down a little to enjoy a different pace of life because they are afraid that unless great care is taken, technology and globalization may wreak irredeemable damage on the common culture shared between Turk, Greek, Moslem, Christian and Jew alike.

2) TIME CAPSULES
Written & Directed by: Özcan Arca
Narrator: Genco Erkal
Underwater Camera: Donald A. Frey
Directors of Photograpy: Mete Sener - Gökhan Kolsal
Editing Director: Nuran Öner
Editors: H. Haluk Arus - Taylan Baysefer
Music: Alfons Karabuda
Producer: Nurdan Arca
Tecnical Production: Akademi Production
Produced by: Ajans 21© 1998
-- A summary of the feature documentary will be shown.

Time Capsules is the 14 min. short version of a full length documentary film titled "In pursuit of Lost Time".

Both titles suggest archaeologists' claim that once they reach an untouched wrecked for millenia, they literally touch the culture and technology of that time. Those ships are like Time Capsules, preserving the past culture  and take the archaeologists back in time.

In Pursuit of Lost time and the short Time Capsules convey the adventure of underwater archaeology along the Turkish Coasts since 1960's, It was filmed on the underwater site of  the excavation on a 9th century Byzantine ship.

It also includes footage of previous excavations on four wrecks. One of them, the Islamic glass wreck of 11th century is fully conserved and is presently being exhibited in Bodrum Museum of Underwater Archaelogy.

Both long and short versions focus on the Institute of Nautical Archaeology's (INA) excavation of a 9th century Byzantine shipwreck at the coast near Selimiye; a beautiful tiny village in south of Turkey where Aegean sea meets the Meditteranean. The film portrays the personal views of diver-archaeologists as well as the meaning and journey of the findings towards the Museum in Bodrum; a popular resort town nearby.

In Pursuit of Lost Time was awarded "the Best Film on Excavations" by Icronos International Film Festival of Bordeaux / France, October 2000 and chosen among the 25 best films in the 12th Rassegna International Archaeology Film Festival of Rovereto, Italy in October 2001. The film has been invited to thematic festivals in France, Italy and Greece among awarded films throughout 2001 and 2002.

3) "THE ADYGHE", THE EXODUS OF CIRCASSIAN PEOPLE
Director - Sehbal Senyurt
Producer - Ela Barlas
Script - Sehbal Senyurt/ Ela Barlas
Director of Photography - Bülent Arinli
Music - Loreena McKennit / Islamey
Consultant - Burzaq Khagadu
Copyright - sufilm@sufilm.net
Original Length: 77 Minutes
-- A summary of the feature documentary will be shown.

The Exodus of Circassian people, starting 1868 until today's ethnic cleansing situ
ation in Caucasus by following the journey of Prince Ali Bin Al Hussein of Jordan from Jordan to the Caucasus as the symbolic reverse of the exodus.

4) TINKOS FISH TINKOS
Directer and Producer: Murad Özdemir
Year of Production: 2001
Original Length: 35 Minutes
-- A summary of the documentary will be shown.

"Sea is everything to me; it's my love, my passion, my bread..."

The story of a Turkish fisherman, Harun, living in Tenedos (Bozcaada) - The film explores Harun'/s daily life, his past and his relations with his Greek friends and neighbors.

An experimental documentary on the new capital city of Turkey after/under republican regime. The name of the film comes from the name of the capital city, Ankara. It is distorted: "an" means moment/instance and "kara" means black. In the film a girl says, "this is our current situation, this is our new way of life".

The new regime is constituted with revolutions in all realms of life. Beside the political revolution, cultural and social revolutions are realized in everyday life of people and their physical environment. Ankara, which is the new capital city, became the symbol of this revolution as the new physical environment of the new regime and its way of life.

The words of the little girl, "This is our current situation, this is our new way of life" summarizes this revolutionary change with its emphasis on the cultural change.

6) RIBAT
Directors : Ozgur E.ARIK / Deger KAVAZ
Year of Poduction: 2001
Original Length: 25 minutes
-- A summary of the documentary will be shown.

This is the story of a vanishing not just a man but also a culture. As one of the last representative of their vocal culture, a Kurdish story-teller "Dengbêj" Abdulkadir, tells his story of slowly falling into oblivion in modern times and modern life.

* * * * *

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
-- Prof. Etem EROL @ Columbia University
-- Jeanene MITCHEL @ Columbia University
-- Emin PAMUCAK, North Carolina, Representative of the Light Millennium
-- International Affairs Council and the US Department of State for making this cultural exchange possible with a generous grant.

About The Light Millennium:

(For ALL aspects of the Light Millennium> http://www.lightmillennium.org/about%20lm/list.html)

The Light Millennium, Inc. is a Charitable Organization with 501 (c) (3) statuses, and a Not-For-Profit Organization based in New York. Introduced in August 1999 on the Web, and established in January 2000, it was founded by Bircan Ünver on July 17, 2001 as a Public Interest Multi-Media Global Platform (www.lightmillennium.org; www.isikbinyili.org; www.turkishgreeksynergy.net; the Light Millennium TV Series-LMTV & various events); that e-publishes, presents and broadcasts ideas and experiences freely (without any censorship, within the publishing policy of the organization) in order to foster global positive energy and a connection among all peoples by encouraging intellectual productivity and communication.

For its Publishing Policy, see:
http://www.lightmillennium.org/lm_publishing_policy.html

* The Light Millennium is associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations effective as of December 12, 2005.

Contact or for more information:
Bircan Ünver, Producer of the event
E-mail: bircanunver@lightmillennium.org
http://www.lightmillennium.org
http://www.isikbinyili.org
For Direction - Jeanene Mitchell at Columbia University:
E-mail: jmm2170@columbia.edu

"YOU ARE THE SOUL OF THIS GLOBAL PLATFORM. & WE ARE FOR THE GREATNESS IN HUMANITY."

http://www.lightmillennium.org - http://www.isikbinyili.org & http://www.turkishgreeksynergy.net