Please join us for a screening and Q&A with Firat Yücel and belit sağ to discuss their filmmaker-group project Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto) Censorship on March 23rd at 1pm at Kellen Auditorium.
A group of filmmakers and artists from Turkey collaborated to create videos on “(auto)censorship”, in response to the increasingly repressive climate in Turkey. The result is Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto)censorship, a collective reflection on the limits of freedom of expression. Six videos intertwined with each other, reframing the history of censorship from the perspective of those who experienced it. Through diverse forms – desktop documentaries, video essays, photography, letters, chats, reenactments and CCTV footage – Seen Unseen: An Anthology of (Auto)Censorship revisits recent histories of censorship from the perspective of those who have lived them. From prison writings and unsent letters to unfinished documentaries and a painting barred from print, the anthology explores a central question of filmmaking: to show, or not to show.
Following the screening, filmmakers will join remotely via Zoom for the Q&A
Program Duration: 66 min
About the Filmmakers
Fırat Yücel is a documentary director, producer, and editor based in Amsterdam and Istanbul. He curates the Altyazı Fasikül: Free Cinema video series supporting political filmmakers at risk and is affiliated with the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR). His work focuses on collective filmmaking and resistance to censorship, often using video-essay, archival/found footage, and desktop-documentary forms. His films include Welcome Lenin (2016), Only Blockbusters Left Alive (2016), Audience Emancipated: The Struggle for the Emek Movie Theater (2016), Head and Tails (2018), March 8, 2020: A Memoir (2020), and the award-winning Translating Ulysses (2023, co-directed with Aylin Kuryel). He was a fellow at BAK Utrecht’s Fellowship for Situated Practice (2023–2024).
belit sağ (she/they) is a visual artist, researcher, and educator who studied mathematics in Ankara and audiovisual arts and comparative literature in Amsterdam. A former resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten and the International Studio & Curatorial Program (NYC), her research-based practice explores visual representations of political violence and migration histories. Her current project, Remembering Otherwise, examines the labor struggle of the first group of migrant women from Turkey to unionize in the Netherlands. She has presented work internationally, including at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, documenta14, MOCA Taipei, Eye Filmmuseum, and major film festivals such as Rotterdam, Toronto, and New York.
Please join us for this screening and Q&A, hosted and moderated by Amir Husak, Director of Documentary Studies and Assistant Professor of Media Studies.
The New School Doc Studies 