Seminar and Workshop
RADICAL DEMOCRACY URBAN ENCOUNTER

13 December 2014 Saturday, 10:30 - 18.30
Tütün Deposu

(Open for everyone free of charge; registration required for the workshop via email to
atolye@modeistanbul.com)

Commons refers to the resources that should be equally accessible to all members of the society, including natural materials such as air, water and habitable earth, as well as cultural, educational, urban and scientific resources. Belonging to everyone and no one at the same time, commons is a domain where the needs of the civil society take center stage. It is where civil rights and participatory processes are experienced - paving way to a more livable future.

The first of the Radical Democracy Urban Encounters held by MODE Istanbul will involve the participants of various communities and disciplines in talks and discussions about the struggles for reclaiming the common (public) spaces and alternative approaches, highlighting the issues of awareness and visibility. The practices of commoning, activism, grassroots participation, transparency, self-governance, placemaking and collective production will be addressed; working sessions will be held to identify media-communications related needs and to explore possible solutions.

Seminar: Reclaiming the Common Spaces, 10:30

Speakers: Özge Çelikaslan (Artıkişler Kolektifi), Boğaçhan Dündaralp (ddrlp), Aslıhan Şenel (İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi), Can Pürüzsüz (140journos), Arzu Erturan (Sokak Bizim), Cem Baza (Gezi Parkı Sanat Kolektifi), Ezgi Öz (Kuzey Ormanları Savunması)

Accompanied by video screenings, interdisciplinary speakers will share their experiences and answer questions related to topics such as mapping the commons, digital public space, rejuvenation projects, alternative initiatives, solidarity experiences, street arts and street struggles taking place in different neighborhoods.

Workshop: Alternative Urban Approaches, 15:30

Participants will be involved in working sessions and creative exercises designed to explore alternative approaches and projects for reclaiming the common spaces, and to consider strategies that can be adapted for media-making and communications. This joint idea-generation and action-taking process will continue during the upcoming Urban Encounters to be held regularly.

Detailed program and content are here.


Workshop
VIDEO ACTIVISM WORKSHOP

14 December 2014 Sunday, 10.30 - 18.00
Tütün Deposu

The Video-Activism workshop that is being held for the last three years in the festival is introducing activist video makers of the new generation with the Film Makers of 60s and 70s. What were the conditions of movie shootings in the old generations and how they were distributing them? What were the contributions of this to social transformation? What are the differences when today’s video-demonstration movements are considered? We will be discussing all these topic together and evaluating the new opinions to come out of the meeting of these two generations.

In the second part of the workshop, Kazova workers will share their struggling process and the effects of video in this, and the activists who documented the current issues such as Kobane-Suruç, Yırca, Validebağ and supported these struggles will share their experiences.

Contributors: Ahmet Soner, Mutlu Parkan, Enis Rıza Sakızlı, Veysel Atayman, Ezgi Bakcay, Aynur Aydemir, Serkan Gönüş , Kazım Kızıl, Hakan Tosun, Özlem Sarıyıldız

Coordinators: Nagehan Uskan, Sevgi Halime Özçelik

Panel
THE DISPLACED PEOPLE OF OUR TIME: PALESTINIANS AND SYRIANS

16 December 2014 Tuesday, 17:00
SALT Galata

Palestinians became the symbol of the displaced people in all over the world since the Nakba (Day of the Catastrophe) in 1948. Hundred thousands of displaced people were forced to live in the refugee camps in neighbouring countries or in their own land.

There had been no improvement in their lives since then. In the meantime, the number of the refugees and refugee camps multiplied in the last 66 years. However they have never lost the hope of returning back to their homeland. Now Syrians are experiencing the same catastrophe that Palestinians are forced to live in generations.

There are millions of Syrian refugees are taking shelter let alone in Turkey.
Devoid of any basic rights they struggle to adapt themselves to a new way of life for an undefinite prolonged time while being treated as uninvited guests. Now their problems are multiplied: Xenophobia turning to violence is a growing trend in big cities against asylum seekers.

Palestinian and Syrian panelists are discussing the issue of displacement in the panel enriched with the documentaries on those countries such as (“Gaza Calling’’, “Encounter with a Lost Land”, “Asfur”, “Every Day, Every Day”, "Riddance") programmed in the 6th Which Human Rights? Film Festival.

Syrian writer Yassin Al Haj Saleh once a prisoner under the opression of Baas regime and Mazen Rabia experienced a life in Yarmouk, the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Syria, are amongst the panelists. The panel will be held both in Turkish and Arabic and the moderator is Şenay Özden, a researcher on refugee-related issues.

Participants:
Yassin Al Haj Saleh (Syrian writer)
Mazen Rabia (Palestinian educator from Yarmouk, the biggest Palestinian refugee camp in Syrian)
Moderator: Şenay Özden (One of the founders of Hamisch Syrian Cultural House, researcher on refugees)


Meeting
CHILDREN WORKSHOP MEETING

15 December 2014 Monday, 17:00
Tütün Deposu

Which Human Rights? Film Festival Children Workshops were launched by a group of volunteers that gathered after the earthquake in Van and as parts of workshops, painting, animation, radio games, short film and documentary works were carried out with the children-at-risk. Additionally, film screenings and children workshops were carried in penitentiaries. Workshops with refugee children which was organized for the first time in Reyhanlı continued in Ikitelli during the year. We are planning to organize a new one in Urfa within this month. The first of our long-termed Soma workshops will be starting right after Which Human Rights? Film Festival.

As Which Human Rights? Film Festival volunteers, we are organizing a gathering for the ones who would like to join or support Children Workshops as we do every year. We are expecting everyone who are interested.