LET AMIT Y BE THE STAR
In the beginning of the International Amity Short Film Festival, we set out to remind ourselves and the world of the concept of friendship that is the soul of Anatolia. We said, in the words of great master Fethi Gemuhluoğlu, we should be a friend to ourselves, our geography, our histor y, our neighbors, nature and all the friendship must be told. We received an answer to our call from all over our countr y and all over the world. As we were getting ready to carr y out the second year of the festival, receiving more than 1500 films from total of 100 countries in two years filled us with hope, made us happy, and increased our responsibility. We think that our current goal should be to work hard in order to spread our festival activities, film screenings, interviews, workshops and activities made in the name of art and friendship throughout the year.We are in an age in which people’s kindliness toward one another is diminished and humanity sacrificed itself with man-made technologies and systems. We are facing a structure that is reduced to producing more and consuming more, isolated in crowds, and alienated to its nature for the sake of survival of the dominant system. A new type of enslavement is gaining wide currency, in which crowds are dictated about what to do based on examined, observed, and archived information about themselves, in return they are convinced to believe that they are liberalized. While a small minority live in extravagance, masses suffer from hunger. We live in an age, while the number of those suffer from injustice and oppression are growing swiftly and oppressors successfully display a simulation game that they distribute justice. Climate, nature, and balance is deteriorating. Unfortunately, the contemporar y ambitions of the human being are destroying many living things instead of being friendly to nature. As the festival, we wish to remind humanity that human beings are also a living species. In this age in which we experience the dominancy of conflict, oppression, alienation, isolation, deterritorialization, and marginalization; we will continue to invite the humanity to friendship -which is the essence of Anatolia- to oneself, to one’s neighbors, and to all the troubled distant lands. We remember the histor y of Anatolia that embraced all differences based on gender, race, religion, and language and saved many such as Spanish Jews or White Russians by extending a friendly hand. By doing so, people who survived by taking refuge in Anatolia showed the masses as an example. We would like the entire world to meet in this essence for the sake of humanity. For this second year of festival, which we dedicated to Âşık Veysel, who established an excellent amity with the entire humanity through his music and prose, I would like to thank to all friends who are short film makers from all over the world that responded to our call, to the efforts of the festival team that worked day and night to reach this stunning result. I would like to express my gratitude to the biggest friend of the international community, Turkish Red Crescent and its president Kerem Kınık, the Mayor of Beyoğlu Mr. Haydar Ali Yıldız, the Mayor of Zeytinburnu Mr. Ömer Arısoy and all the other institutions and organizations that support us. A good future can only be built with friendship. Friendship is a value of the entire humanity. Let’s watch together these exciting outcomes that put toward friendship at the festival. With sincerely hoping to meet friends in front a white screen..
Mehmet Lütfi Şen