Environmental Defiance on Screen

This hands-on session will guide participants on camera positioning, selecting visual information, structuring interviews for effective communication, and employing visual strategies to protect and empower video subjects. The workshop is designed for environmental activists, members of community organizations, and individuals passionate about visual storytelling for environmental causes and who seek to use video as a focal tool for their work. Participants are encouraged to bring either raw footage or completed activist and/or advocacy videos for the workshop’s practical exercises.

Özlem Sarıyıldız is a video activist, documentary filmmaker, and visual artist with an academic background in Industrial Design and Media and Cultural Studies. Özlem was the founding member of the first video activist collective in Turkey, Karahaber (2004-2011), which emerged with the motto 'From the image of the action to the action of the image.' Her work explores the intersection of environmental activism, gender, and the struggle for the commons, through a narrative that reveals the underlying power dynamics and aligns with voices that seek to reshape the course of history. Notable projects include 'Damn the Dams' (2012), a deep dive into the enduring legal and physical battles faced by Bağbaşı village against hydroelectric plants; 'Walter Salt Flour' (2005-2011), which highlights the empowerment of Argentina's piquetero movement women through community kitchens; and 'There and Back' (2013), a story about the symbiotic relationship between the environment and Aegean Sea women rowers. Currently, she is the artistic co-director of the Hier&Jetzt: Connections artist residency program in Berlin.

Şirin Fulya Erensoy is a film and media scholar, based between Istanbul and Berlin. Her research focuses on video activism, women and documentary filmmaking and genre cinema. She has experience as a lecturer in Film and Television at various institutions in Turkey and recently completed her Marie Curie Individual post-doctoral fellowship at the Film University Babelsberg Konrad Wolf (September 2021 – August 2023). She supplements her academic work with ongoing practices in documentary film production, film curation and journalism. Şirin has curated numerous art and film events in cooperation with institutions in Berlin, including the Maxim Gorki Theatre, and the Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien and has been involved as a curator in film festivals such as the Hive International Short Film Days and the Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival. Her professional journey also includes her role as anchor for the English news-bulletin This Week in Turkey on the alternative digital media platform Medyascope TV. In addition to her roles in media and academia, Şirin has worked on international film projects in various capacities such as editing, producing, translating, and researching. Furthermore, she has directed her own short films and videos, some of which have received funding from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey, the Turkish Foundation of Cinema and Audiovisual Culture, and Goethe Institut Istanbul.

Please register via the link above/ write an email to: participate@spore-initiative.org

Deadline: 10th of May        

maximum number of participants: 12

Questions for applying

Name/Surname

Name of the organization/collective you are affiliated with

What do you hope to learn from this workshop?

What is your experience with video/editing?

Will you be bringing raw footage/videos of your activities?