History ignores the trees and the dead.
Trees must rise,
They must not resemble each other in length and breadth.
The dead, here and now, must multiply their names,
They must know how they died one by one.
…
And they must say it;
We’re still here
We spy a piercing star
each of the letters of the alphabet
And they should sing this song:
We’re still here
We carry the burden of eternity
Mahmud Dervish
WHERE ARE WE GOING?
To fellow filmmakers who bear witness to their age,
Since October 7, humanity, childhood, morality, morality, law and all values have been massacred in Gaza and all over the world. Leaders, power holders and the media are mostly either blind or on the side of the oppressor. Citizens, artists and intellectuals are on the streets, albeit belatedly, but to no avail. How much do we long for a deficiency to be corrected, a mistake to be corrected and a change? Those who cannot control their conscience and those who cannot silence it and continue their lives normally ask themselves the same question: ‘Where are we going?’. The answer is the same for everyone: ‘Nowhere’…
There has probably never been a period in history that has left humanity, conscience and the heart so hopeless, so helpless. Everyone is forced to watch a massacre and genocide on the screens. The killers are applauded instead of being punished. While the world is tired of watching the bodies of children being torn apart every day, the innocent people of Gaza are struggling with hunger, famine and thirst, deprived of the most basic human needs such as education, health and even a tent to shelter…
As artists and directors, we are beings who experience the pain and joy of society at the extremes. Our consciences are kneaded with a sensitivity and emotion that sheds light on other people’s consciences. We have the ‘weapons’ that will reach everyone and cause even the evil to empathize. We know that our work will anger the killers instead of making them stop and think, but despite all their pressure and blackmail, we must not back down in the name of humanity. We must stand up and do something, hoping that our films, poems, music and paintings will guide future generations. We know that we may not get anywhere after this time. Maybe thousands more children and women will die because of the cowardice and imprisonment of the so-called opinion leaders, but where we stand, we must raise our voices as artists and bear witness to the times, so that maybe the generations after us will have the courage to discover new places to go.
Every year we have dedicated our Amity Film Festival to great poets, composers and entellectual who have immortalized friendship with their instruments, words and poetry. On this occasion, we commemorated Yunus Emre, Aşık Veysel, Hacıbektaş-ı Veli and last year Neşet Ertaş on the occasion of our festival. Inspired by their works, we tried to beautify friendship on earth, in our social life and our picture of humanity on the big screen. This year we are holding our festival in memory of the great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish. His poetry, as the most tangible form of Palestinian consciousness, stands tall in a way that no cannon or bullet can destroy, and today it still waves like a flag over the Palestinian youth, cooling its people. We hope that all humanity will be inspired by these poems, which reflect the spirit of friendship, love and freedom, and that artists will be inspired to create their works.
In our festival, which we will hold in honor of Palestine and in memory of the poet Mahmoud Darwish, this year, in addition to our section where films with the theme of friendship will compete, we have also opened a section where films about the occupation and independence of Palestine will compete. We will present the ‘Mahmut Darwish Amity Award’ to the best film that will compete in this section and will be determined by our jury. In addition, as every year, we will bring different genres of films with the theme of friendship to our audience in our Forty Years of Gratitude section, where out-of-competition films will be screened. Filmmakers can continue to submit their films to any of these sections according to their themes via ‘filmfreeway’ and ‘festhome’ platforms.
We are waiting for all our filmmaker friends who want to be the voice of all the oppressed in the world, especially Gaza and Palestine, and to make their voices heard through their films, to share their works with us,
As the Friendship Film Festival family, we reiterate our call for the civilian blood of the Palestinian people, which has been flowing since October 7th, to stop as soon as possible.
Faysal Soysal
6th International Amity Film Festival Director