Cleveland Cinematheque | Guney Series

HOPE opens four-film Yilmaz Guney series
With his pivotal 1970 work HOPE , Yilmaz Güney, who was Turkey’s most popular actor during the 1960s, embarked on the road to becoming Turkey’s most celebrated filmmaker. HOPE saw Güney forsaking the mindless action melodramas that had made him famous and taking his work in a semi-autobiographical, socially-conscious new direction. In doing so, he struck a chord with the long-suffering Turkish public. The movie stars Güney as a put-upon everyman named Cabbar, a debt-ridden cart driver struggling to feed his large family. When one of his two horses is struck by a Mercedes and dies, the desperate Cabbar has to work even harder to make ends meet, while also seeking justice for the injury. Initially banned in Turkey, HOPE evokes great postwar Italian neorealist works like THE BICYCLE THIEF. On Friday you have a very rare chance to see it in a new 35mm print imported from Turkey.

THE HERD is another hard-hitting Guney film
Scripted by Yilmaz Güney while he was in prison for murder, and directed by proxy, the 1978 Turkish drama THE HERD is a powerful social drama that chronicles the disintegration of a family of naïve, nomadic shepherds as they transport their sheep from rural Anatolia to urban Ankara. The Holt Foreign Film Guide calls this important work by the great Güney “abrasive, violent and lyrical.” On Saturday you can see it in a new, 35mm color print imported from Turkey

Cleveland | Young Turk: Four Films By Yilmaz Güney

Young Turk: Four Films By Yilmaz Güney
Cleveland Institute of Art | 11141 East Blvd., Cleveland

Yilmaz Güney, Turkey's most famous filmmaker, had a career like no other. Born in 1937 to poor, working class Kurdish parents, he studied law and economics at university but became a writer, then actor, in Turkey's film industry. A gruff-looking tough guy nicknamed "the Ugly King," he appeared in scores of popular revenge melodramas and crime films and soon became the country's most popular movie star. In the mid-1960s he formed a production company and started directing his own features. At first these were pulpy fictions like the potboilers that made him famous, but with the unflinching Hope in 1970, he turned his attention to more serious matters: the plight of Turkey's working poor. This gritty new direction struck another chord with his countrymen, and until his untimely death (from cancer) in 1984 his movies remained angry and socially committed.

A rabble-rouser and troublemaker, Güney was never popular with the Turkish authorities (or censors). He spent much of his later life in jail. He was sent to prison in 1961 for publishing a "communist" novel, in 1972 for harboring anarchists, and in 1974 for murdering a right-wing judge during a drunken brawl. Though Güney claimed he was innocent of this last crime, he was sentenced to 19 years behind bars. Because of his incarceration, Güney only wrote the scripts for many of his later films, giving them (with detailed instructions) to industry friends to direct and complete. The most famous of these was Yol, which won the Palme d'or at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Fortunately Güney had escaped from prison in 1981 and fled to France, so he was free to enjoy his ultimate triumph. This two-week series showcases four of the best of Güney's 20+ films as a director or writer. All will show in new 35mm prints from the Yilmaz Güney Foundation.

Fri: 8/19 - 9:20 Pm Hope, Sat 8/20 - 8:50 Pm The Herd, Sun 8/28 - 6:30 Pm, The Poor Ones,Sun 8/28 - 8:05 Pm Yol Call Timothy Harry 216-421-7450 or email tharry@cia.edu

Güney’s films to hit the road in America, Canada

Güney’s films to hit the road in America, Canada

17 August 2011, Wednesday / TODAY’S ZAMAN WITH WIRES, İSTANBUL

A selection of the works of the late Kurdish actor and film director Yılmaz Güney are to be screened in the United States and Canada as part of a travelling cinema tour set to kick off at the Cleveland Institute of Art Cinematheque this Friday.

A feat realized by the joint efforts of US-based Turkish curator Ercüment Akman, the Yılmaz Güney Foundation and the Turkish Embassy’s Culture and Tourism office in Washington, D.C., the Güney bandwagon will continue on to Los Angeles, Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Houston and Berkeley/San Francisco before wrapping up in Washington next year.

A total of eight of the controversial director’s most acclaimed titles will be screened, including “Yol” (The Way), “Umut” (Hope), “Sürü” (The Herd), “Seyit Han,” “Aç Kurtlar” (Hungry Wolves), “Arkadaş” (The Friend) and “Zavallılar” (The Miserables), the Anatolia news agency reported on Tuesday.

In what is hoped to be a comprehensive introduction of Güney’s works to American audiences, the eight films are also set to be added to the winter and spring programs of a number of American universities as well as being featured in the Turkish Films Screening program to be held at the world’s leading performing arts center, the Lincoln Center, in early 2012. The final stop in Washington will include academic discussion on the works in the form of symposiums to be held at the George Mason and Georgetown universities.

Speaking to Anatolia, curator Akman said that important film institutes and academics have been trying to get Güney’s films to America for a long time now. Explaining how the event eventually came about he said: “Earlier in the year private screenings of these eight films were shown at Harvard University over a period of five days. During the interim, where the films were waiting in the university archives to be sent back to Turkey, myself and the director of the Yılmaz Güney Foundation, Hüseyin Karabey, contacted the ministry and began our negotiations to push for the screenings.”

Akman further commented that he feels that such programs endorsing the works of one director are more useful in promoting Turkish cinema than film festivals, adding that talks are in place for similar feature events on the works of directors such as Reha Erdem, Fatih Akın and Semih Kaplanoğlu.

New Schedule | University of Chicago Included

New Schedule

Turkish Press Coverage of Guney Series

http://www.box.net/shared/mybzrom61qs82naj5qlg

Güney’s films to be screened in US

WASHINGTON - Anatolia News Agency
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Late Turkish director and actor Yilmaz Güney’s films will be screened in the United States and Canada as part of a traveling movie event.

Along with the films, a documentary featuring Güney and Turkish cinema will be shown in the cities. They will also be included in the Turkish Films Screening program that will be held in 2012 at the Lincoln Center, as well as in the spring and winter programs of American universities. The last stop for the films will be Washington. Symposiums will take place at the universities of George Mason and Georgetown.

The films, including “Yol” (The Way), “Umut” (The Hope), “Sürü” (The Herd), “Seyit Han,” “Aç Kurtlar” (Hungry Wolves), “Arkadaş” (The Friend) and “Zavallılar” (The Miserables), will be shown in the U.S. cities of Los Angeles, Houston, Berkeley/San Francisco, New York and others, as well as the Canadian cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Ottawa, in association with Turkish curator Ercüment Akman, the Culture and Tourism Ministry’s Office in Washington and Güney Film. The screenings will start on Aug. 19 at the Cleveland Art Museum.

Akman said some of Güney’s eight most unforgettable films would be screened together in the U.S. for the first time.

“I think that programs including films by a certain director will be more useful in promoting Turkish cinema instead of organizing Turkish film festivals. We are planning to organize similar programs for Turkish directors such as Reha Erdem, Fatih Akın and Semih Kaplanoğlu,” he said.

In the past, some Güney films were lost during screening in Europe, he said, adding that Güney Film and director Hüseyin Karabey tried to collect these films. He also said the ministry bought copies of some Güney films, collecting 11 of them on a DVD. Akman said some significant cinemas and museums in North America had asked to screen Güney’s films for many years.

‘Officials are very pleased’

Explaining how the decision to show the films in the U.S. was taken, he said: “With the collaboration of Harvard University, Güney Film and the Tourism Ministry, eight films were shown at the university in four to five days. Later on, the films were kept in the university’s archive to be sent back to Turkey. When I learned about it, I wanted these films to be shown in more places and had a talk with Karabey. We got in touch with the ministry and made contacts so that six or seven films could be shown in the country. Actually, such programs should be organized one or two years beforehand. If we had been able to do it, we would have been able to show more films.”

U.S. and Canadian officials are very pleased to show the films in their own countries, he said, adding that Australian producers were also interested in showing the films.