CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS

The festival is coming soon and we need your help.

We need people to help us for smooth running of the festival programme at the venues. Although I and other committee members will be around all the time but we still need more people to help us. If you live in London and are free between 20-30 November you might be the one we need. Your help needed for following:

Box office attendee: for the screening at Amnesty International and Birkbeck University Cinema between 21st-27th of November. You will be responsible for the ticketing desks. 12pm till 8pm at Birkbeck on the 21st and 22nd & 1pm until 5pm at Amnesty International between 23-27th of November
Sightseeing: anybody who is not yet fed up with taking people around in London to show city’s main attractions. It might be only one day or two days job. We are looking for multilingual people who can speak Kurdish (Sorani, Kurmanji), English and Turkish
Distribution of the festival programme and putting up festival posters: Please let me know if you would be able to help with this even able to take some posters and programmes for your school, cafes, restaurants, theatres, cinemas and other art spaces around your neighbourhood.
Stall attendee: some of directors might want to sell their DVDs at the venues. We need some people to look after this stall.

In return you will be able to  attend our opening gala reception followed by opening gala screening, access to the screenings (only when accompanied by committee members as we have very limited guess passes that we will give it our festival guests).

Every little help very much appreciated. Please send me a message or call me on 07876710250 if you are able to do any of above tasks.

Thank you very much in advance for your help

Mustafa Gundogdu

Coordinator of London Kurdish Film Festival

Introduction

Since our last festival in 2007, we are happy to be with you once again now and also to be taking our festival to a new level this year.  For the first time, the London Kurdish Film Festival will be screening films in six different venues across the London during this year’s festival. Since the beginning of our festival back in 2001, the Rio Cinema in Dalston has been the lone venue for the London Kurdish Film Festival. Many different factors played into our decision to move the festival around and across London in order to reach the diverse audiences. This is indeed a challenge for us but we are ready to take it and we hope to further develop and hone this strategy in the future for all of our forthcoming festivals. We are also happy that our films will be shown in different parts of the capital to help share the films’ messages with everyone.
Once again we have an exceptionally strong programme chockfull of films by both Kurdish and non-Kurdish directors. The programme is packed with strong and diverse films that cover a wide range of critical issues and tell compelling stories.
There have been some very positive developments for Kurdish cinema in 2009. In Cannes 2009, there were only two films in competition for films from Iran and both were made by the Kurdish directors. NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS by Bahman Ghobadi and WHISPER WITH THE WIND by Shahram Alidi both received numerous awards at Cannes 2009 and we are thrilled to have both films in our programme. Also this year, the first-ever Kurdish film festival in the United States was just launched and took place in New York in October. This long hoped-for US project became a reality with the help and contributions of our festival and we are very happy to have a sister festival across the ocean now. With this new festival, the Kurds have created an important bridge between our capitals of London and New York.  Another significant development that occurred in 2009 was the inclusion of several Kurdish films into 46th International Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival including: MİN DÎT (CHILDREN OF DIYARBAKIR); the documentary PRISON NUMBER 5 (which won the Best Documentary Award); another documentary, ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL (which won Best First Film Award); and FATAL DRESS.  It’s hard to believe that although the Kurds are the second biggest population in Turkey, their films are only able to participate in such a festival after decades of waiting; it also reveals the level of the oppression and segregation faced by the Kurds in Turkey. But the good news is that all four of these films are in our programme this year, allowing you to see these wonderful films in London. Another great achievement for 2009 was the publication of the first-ever book on Kurdish Cinema edited by director Müjde Arslan. The book, Kurdish Cinema: Rootlessnes, Border and Death, has been published only in Turkish for now but there is planned publication in Kurdish and English. And, last but not least, this year has also been made notable by the upcoming Kurdish Film Festival and Cinema Conference in Diyarbakır, jointly organised by the Diyarbakır Metropolitan Municipality and the Diyarbakır Art Centre. The festival and conference will be taking place between 4-13 December 2009 in Diyarbakir.
This year, we have a lot to be exited about in the programme.  We are proud to present several first feature films by young female Kurdish directors at the 2009 festival. Switzerland-based Kurdish female director Ayten Mutlu Saray will be attending our festival with her first feature film ZARA, while another female director, Shirin Cihani, who is based in South Kurdistan (Iraq), will be participating with her first feature film STARS ARE HUELESS BY DAY which has been described by some as first feminist feature film of Kurdish cinema. Other festival highlights include AZAD by Nicolas Tackian, a movie produced by French TV, which highlights the Kurds’ position on the Armenian genocide from the director’s unique perspective. We are also happy to host the UK premiere of AFTER THE DOWNFALL by renowned Kurdish director Hiner Saleem. Also of note, while it was just two years ago that we were helping a casting agency that was looking for actors for WELCOME by Philippe Lioret, we now we have this powerful movie in our festival – a film that has triggered important discussion in France and beyond because of its frank and critical approach to the France’s immigration policy. Although international film festivals like the Golden Orange and the Golden Bowl in Turkey have never included Kazım Öz’s films in their festivals, we are bringing this Kurdish director’s two latest and very powerful films THE STORM and THE LAST SEASON: SHAWAKS to London this year. We are also happy to host THE STORM’s UK premiere at the festival. Germany-based Kurdish director Ravin Asaf will be taking part in our festival with his latest film THE SMELL OF APPLES. Additionally, the films HERMAN, HEAVEN IS NOT THE PLACE FOR THE TERRORISTS and THE LAND OF LEGENDS are all feature films from Kurdistan by young Kurdish directors and will surely enrich our programme this year with an all-important perspective from the younger generation. All of these films were made with small budget in very difficult conditions and they represent the creativity and bravery of the Kurdish filmmakers in overcoming such hurdles.
In our documentary programmes, we have 55 strong short and long documentaries. AMERICAN HERRO and DOTMAM are two deftly shot documentaries that show the remarkable achievement of two Kurdish women despite the incredible hardships facing them in their lives. While many of our documentaries deal with the social and political issues including violence against women in Kurdistan, CLOSE UP KURDISTAN by Germany-based Kurdish director Yüksel Yavuz provides invaluable insight into some of the most critical issues facing the Kurds and is especially valuable for educating non-Kurdish audiences about the current situation in Kurdistan. Glasgow-based filmmakers Peri Ibrahim and Doug Aubrey bring Kurdistan closer to us with their feature-length documentary, KURDI. LEYLA QASIM and SOZDAR are two documentaries that focus on women who have taken part in Kurdish resistance movements. In other parts of the documentary programme, far from being able to make cinema freely, the Kurds in Syria live under extremely harsh daily living conditions. Despite these barriers, we are very fortunate to have a documentary film, A DAY IN THE NORTH, by a Kurdish director who has asked to use an alias in order to avoid Syrian state pressure. This necessary decision, sadly, points to level of oppression under which the Kurds in Syria are currently living. Another Kurdish director, Mano Khalil, who left Syria years ago because of repression is also represented in our festival with his latest documentary MY PRISON MY HOME. Following on our strong programme of Yazidi Kurdish films in our 5th festival, this year we have two beautifully shot films on Yazidi Kurds. The first is a documentary, YEZIDI, by renowned Norwegian director Anja Breien and the second is YEZIDI VILLAGE made by Kurdish director Rodi Yüzbaşı in 2008.
In addition to our short film competition films, we also have another 10 strong short films listed on Pages 34 and 35 of our programme.  These include the latest work of Oslo-based Kurdish director Hisham Zaman entitled THE OTHER ONES, as well as 3 shorts from the young Amsterdam-based Kurdish director Beri Shalmashi who was recently named the Best Bicultural Student in Higher Education in the Netherlands and also named one of the top-ten young film talents in the Netherlands by the film magazine SKRIEN. Binevşa Berivan, who was one of the jury members for the 1st Yılmaz Güney Short Film Competition back in ­­­­­­­­­­2007, is herself participating in the festival this year with her latest short film PHONE STORY. We received over 80 entries for the 2nd Yılmaz Güney Short Film Competition this year and 45 of them have been selected by the pre-selection committee comprising Kurdish and non-Kurdish individuals.
We would like to thank everyone who has contributed to our festival this year. In particular we would like to thank all of the filmmakers who have submitted their films to our festival, jury members who have agreed to take on this difficult job, volunteers who have carried out their tasks so smoothly and patiently, all our representatives in Kurdistan and especially our sponsors and media sponsors for their contributions to the festival. In particular we would like to specifically thank some individuals and organisations by name including: Boris Johnson (Mayor of London), Dr Barham Ahmad Salih (Prime Minister of Kurdistan Regional Government – KRG), Mr. Falakaddin Kakeyi (Former Minister of Culture, KRG), KRG Ministry of Culture and Youth, Ms. Bayan Abdul Rahman (High Representative to the UK, KRG), Dr. Salah Al-Shaikly (Chairman of The British – Iraqi Friendship Society), BBC World Music Presenter Charlie Gillett, Lawyer Şadiye Arslan (Levenes Solicitor), our long time friend and supporter Ms. Jenny Hall, Farhad Abid (B Plan), Sherko Abid (B Plan), Mr. Mufid Abdulla (Mufid and Co), Aso – Xandan, Pesharaw Namo, Kani Travel, Mr. Peshawa Baban, Donia Restaurant, Lebara Mobile, Mr Shawan Saker and Ari Khasraw, Mr. Naser Hasan for their great support of our festival. Finally one big thank you to Kurdish artist and director Alan Dilan who has created the animated trailer for this year’s festival and Kardo Ayoub who day and night has worked to make our website ready on time. And we cannot forget the wonderful people in our festival venues who have made everything so easy for us: Negede Assefa (Film Officer, Richmix), Shira Macleod (Cinema Director, Riverside), Rob Wray (Director, Shortwave Cinema), Alison Willis (Programme Manager Amnesty International Human Rights Action Centre), Marjorie Hoek and Valerie De Ruyter (Business Relations, Birkbeck College) and Verien Wiltshire (Studio Director, Spring Studios).

Without the support of our friends and sponsors, it would not be possible to organise an event on this scale and bring the brilliant work of Kurdish and non-Kurdish artists who care about the Kurds to London. Enjoy the festival!

For many important reasons we have chosen MİN DÎT (CHILDREN OF DIYARBAKIR) to be the opening night gala film for this year’s festival. Our closing event has also been organised to help with fundraising for a project aimed at building a children’s playground in Halabja in South Kurdistan. Currently, hundreds of Kurdish children in North Kurdistan (Turkey) are in prison for participating in demonstrations for equal rights for the Kurds or for education in their own Kurdish mother tongue, while thousands of children all around the Kurdistan face their future with fear after hearing the horrific stories from their parents about what has happened to the Kurds over the decades. We owe our children a future with peace and brotherhood. This year’s festival dedicated to the all children of Kurdistan!
All films in our festival programme have English subtitles.

London Kurdish Film Festival Organising Committee