‘Documentary’ success of young filmmakers

Bilge Olcay Yılmaz and Yağmur Türkmenoğlu, students of Izmir University of Economics (IUE) Department of Cinema and Digital Media, made it to the finals of the 4^th Kaş International Film Festival with their documentary film titled ‘Thrifted’. The young filmmakers discovered videos shot nearly 20 years ago on a second-hand camera they bought from a flea market in Izmir. Inspired by this discovery, they embarked on a new journey to find the people in the footage and turned their experience into a documentary. After a long effort, the duo, who managed to identify the individuals in the videos and created a 10-minute archival documentary by including short interviews with them, is now aiming to win the first prize at the festival, which will be held from June 11 to 15.

Third-year students of IUE Faculty of Communication, Department of Cinema and Digital Media, Yılmaz and Türkmenoğlu stated that they completed the documentary after about 4 months of work. They said that the filming took place in Izmir and expressed their happiness at being one of the few teams to reach the finals in the ‘new perspective’ category of the festival, adding that they are eager to win an award in the final.

“IT WAS LIKE A FILM WITHIN A FILM”

Sharing more details about their archival documentary, Yılmaz and Türkmenoğlu said, “We bought an old camera from a flea market in Izmir that caught our attention. While checking its settings and features to use it, we stumbled upon some videos. We realized that these videos were shot around 20 years ago. We wanted to reach the people in the footage and return these videos to them. One of the clips was from a school play. In the video, we saw someone calling a little girl onto the stage by saying her full name so she could receive a certificate. We searched for this person on social media and found her. Then we delivered her video. She was surprised but also pleased. That moment sparked an idea in our minds. We wanted to make an archival documentary about this process, including interviews with the people featured in the videos. It was truly like a film within a film. What came out was something very beautiful and memorable for us.”

“EVEN WE DIDN’T EXPECT IT”

Yılmaz and Türkmenoğlu continued as follows: “As cinema and digital media students, we shoot various films throughout the year as part of a long and planned process. However, we could’ve never guessed that a story like this would emerge from a camera we bought at a flea market. It was a joyful and full of experience process, and we completed the film with great pleasure. We’re happy to have made it to the finals of the Kaş International Film Festival, especially in the ‘new perspective’ category, which features many students like us. We hope to win the top prize and bring the award back to Izmir.”