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Audience Emancipated: The Struggle for the Emek Movie Theater

Year
2016
Country
Turkey
Duration
48’
Director
Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim

Audience Emancipated chronicles one of the most prominent struggles that took place in the heart of Istanbul and paved the way for the Gezi Resistance. It tells of the struggle around the Emek Theatre, which was demolished against the people's consent and their common good, and turned into a shopping mall, through the eyes of the activists and spectators. The film consists of footage which people who joined the struggle collected, and in this sense, aims to reflect the common imagination of the people who defended their right to the city. It carries the idea of the new public spirit that gained visibility with the Gezi Resistance through political mobilisation onto the cinema screen.

CREW:
Director: Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative
Producer: Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative
Cinematographer: Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative
Editor: Fırat Yücel, Zeyno Pekünlü (on behalf of Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative)
Sound: Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative
Production
Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim initiative, Turkey. Tel.: +90 533 423 29 72, Fırat Yücel, [email protected], [email protected]
Sales:
Artvoltage, Başak Çallıoğlu, [email protected], www.artvoltage.com
Director
Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim

Emek Bizim İstanbul Bizim (Emek is Ours Istanbul is Ours) is an initiative that was formed in 2010 to organise demonstrations and events against the demolition of the Emek Movie Theater in Beyoğlu, Istanbul. Since 2013, the initiative has collected video and sound recordings of the demonstrations made by activists and various filmmakers, which then turned into the documentary Audience Emancipated: The Struggle for the Emek Movie Theater.

 

Selected Filmography

Selected: Audience Emancipated: The Struggle for the Emek Movie Theater (2016)

Cinema House, Blue Hall
Cinema House
vul. Saksahanskoho, 6
Discussion ‘Culture venues: a Social benefit or the playground for the battle between communities and business?’
22 INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
 6 — 13 
June 2025
Planeta Petrila
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Planeta Petrila
Year
2017
Country
Romania
Director
Andrei Dascalescu
Duration
80’
CITY IMAGE
Half-Life in Fukushima
CITY IMAGE
Half-Life in Fukushima
Year
2016
Country
Switzerland
Directors
Half-Life in Fukushima, Mark Olexa
Duration
61’
CITY IMAGE