Moon and Stars Project and The American
Turkish Society Present
Crossing Borders: A Cinematic Journey from the West to the East
An In-Depth Conversation on GITMEK / MY MARLON AND BRANDO
Co-Organized with NYU Institute for Artists and Global Change
May 2, 2008
7:00pm - 8:30pm
The discussion will be followed by a one-hour cocktail reception
sponsored by Turkish
Kitchen.
NYU Tisch School of the Arts
721 Broadway (corner of Waverly)
Screening Room 109
New York, NY 10003
"Ebullient…Passionate…Forceful" – Screen International
" A moving statement on war and the confining artificiality of
borders" – Variety
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Huseyin Karabey’s feature debut Gitmek / My Marlon and Brando makes its North American Premiere in
2008 Tribeca Film Festival’s World Narrative Feature Competition.
Three years ago, in real-life, Hama Ali, a charismatic B movie actor
from Iraq, and Ayca, a fiery actress from Turkey, met on a film-set.
Their love affair continued across borders through video love
letters until the war in Iraq. As people fled from East to West
seeking safety, Ayca decided to make the journey from West to East,
seeking her lover. My Marlon and Brando, a feature film in which
Ayca plays herself, is based on her extraordinary and, ultimately
unexpected, experiences in such sad, mad times….
Please join us for an in-depth conversation moderated by Binnaz
Saktanber on crossing borders in real life, in filmmaking and
cultural understanding with actress-writer Ayca Damgaci,
Turkish-American journalist and filmmaker Bilge Ebiri, producer
Lucinda Englehart, filmmaker Huseyin Karabey, and film critic
Sukhdev Sandhu.
Principal Cast: Ayca Damgaci, Hama Ali Khan, Savas Emrah Ozdemir,
Cengiz Bozkurt, Ani Pekkaya, Volga Sorgu Tekinoglu
Screenwriters: Huseyin Karabey, Ayça Damgaci
Producers: Lucinda Englehart, Huseyin Karabey, Sophie Lorant
Editor: Mary Stephen
Co-Producers: Jeroen Beker, Frans van Gestel, Harry Sutherland,
Dennis Tal
Director of Photography: A. Emre Tanyildiz
Composers: Kemal S. Gurel, Erdal Guney, Huseyin Yildiz
Bilge Ebiri
Bilge Ebiri is a Turkish American film critic and filmmaker. He
writes about film for New York Magazine, Bookforum, and Nerve.com.
His first feature film, a comedy thriller entitled New Guy, was
released in 2004, and he is currently at work on his second.
Lucinda Englehart
Film producer, Lucinda Englehart, is based in London but works on
co-productions around the world. Having studied Political Science at
Cambridge University, she moved to Cape Town. Here, she wrote
extensively on the experience of documentary subjects telling their
stories of apartheid memory and produced a number of South African
feature films and documentaries. She met Huseyin Karabey at the
Venice Film Festival and having heard the extraordinary true story
told in My Marlon and Brando, came on board to produce this feature
film with him.
Huseyin Karabey
Regarded as one of the new directing talents in Turkey’s growing
independent film scene, Karabey developed My Marlon and Brando with
Ayça Damgaci. His previous work includes Boran, a short film that
explores the disappearance of 5,000 Turkish political activists in
the 1990s by bringing together actual facts and dramatic elements,
and the feature-length docudrama Silent Death. His documentary
Breath was an exclusive look at Pina Bausch, the world-famous German
choreographer. Karabey lectures at universities and cultural
organizations in Turkey, and his films have won numerous awards.
Sukhdev Sandhu
Sukhdev Sandhu is the chief film critic of the London Daily
Telegraph. He is a Contributing Editor at 'Granta', editor of the
journal Texte und Töne, and author of London Calling: How Black and
Asian Writers Imagined A City (2003) and Night Haunts: A Journey
Through Nocturnal London (2007).
Ayca Damgaci
Having studied Dramaturgy and Theater Science at Istanbul
University, Damgaci began her professional acting career at Tiyatro
Oyunevi (Theater Playhouse) in 1998. She won the Best Actress Award
for her performance in My Marlon and Brando at the 27th
International Istanbul Film Festival. She is the founder and one of
the lead vocals for "Gocebe Sarkilar" (The Nomadic Songs), a music
band singing Sephardic, Roman, Armenian, Andalucian, Balkan, and
Anatolian songs. Damgaci is currently rehearsing day and night for
two theater productions by Bilsak Theater Atelier and Garaj
Istanbul.
Binnaz Saktanber
Binnaz Saktanber is the Vice-President of Moon and Stars Project and
a PhD student in City University of New York, Graduate Center. She
studies new media, democratization, and identity politics in Turkey
and in Middle East.
