Events List

MESP 2012 Day Workshop on the History and Themes of Kurdish Cinema

Saturday 11 February 2012

Event: Day Workshop: The History and Themes of Kurdish Cinema.  
Facilitator: Mustafa Gündoğdu, Co-ordinator of the London Kurdish Film Festival.
Venue: Sanctuary, Augustine United Church, 41 George IV Bridge, Edinburgh, EH1 1EL.
Time: Registration: 9.30am-10am. Day Workshop: 10am-4pm.
Event Description: Today hundreds of Kurdish filmmakers are passionately making films and winning prestigious awards around the world at international festivals. This workshop will offer an opportunity to know more about the cinema made by filmmakers from the biggest stateless nation in the world. The workshop intends to cover the short history of the Kurdish cinema and examine the main themes in the cinema of a nation living within four countries, Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria, and forms one of the biggest diaspora communities around the world.

Mustafa Gündoğdu was born in the Dersim province in North Kurdistan (Turkey), a place with a history of anti-Government uprisings. After the military coup of 1980, his family moved to Istanbul. From 1996 to 1998 he attended the cinema course organised by the Kurdish Cultural Centre Mesopotamian Cultural Centre (MKM). He made several shorts and became heavily involved in the human rights movement later on. He moved to London in 2000, where he works for the London-based Kurdish Human Rights Project (KHRP). Gündoğdu is a Founding Member and current Co-ordinator of the London Kurdish Film Festival and in the past had advised the Glasgow International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival. He is also Advisor and a Founding Member of the New York Kurdish Film Festival, launched in 2009. He has organised several other Kurdish film festivals in Europe, including Ireland and Norway. He has published several articles on Kurdish cinema including one in a publication called Film Festival Yearbook 2 published by St Andrews Film Studies in Scotland.

Cost: £15/£10 (Concessions, Students Free). For a Registration Form:
Contact: Neill Walker, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , 0131 331 4469.

On-Line Booking