Üsküdar Üniversitesi Faculty of Communication Radio Television and Cinema Department organized the ‘I Saw a Dream Documentary Screening & Interview with Directors’ event. The event, moderated by Lect. Zafer Sevener from the Faculty of Communication Radio Television and Cinema Department, hosted TRT Director Burcu Esenç as a guest.
The event, held at Üsküdar Üniversitesi South Campus Fuat Sezgin Conference Hall, featured a screening of the ‘I Saw a Dream’ documentary for the participants.
“It is a project whose resources we found ourselves”
TRT Director Burcu Esenç pointed out that the ‘I Saw a Dream’ documentary is an independent project. Esenç said: “The ‘I Saw a Dream’ documentary is an independent project. It is not a project we shot at TRT. It is a project whose resources we found ourselves, and which Cantekin Cantez and I produced and directed together. It is a work prepared based on the idea of how a nation loses its language. There is a story of an exiled community, and people do not pass on that story to each other. Because they believe that they were expelled from their homeland by the Russians, came to Turkey. Now Turkey is their homeland, and they continued to live here.”
“The whole point is to find our story”
Esenç, giving advice to young people about the cinema industry, said: “Money is never an obstacle for a documentary filmmaker. Impossibility is not an obstacle for a documentary filmmaker. Not having a camera is not an obstacle. Impossibility is not something that can stop us. Documentary filmmaking is a passion. The ‘I Saw a Dream’ documentary was deemed worthy of many awards. It received awards from many festivals held in Boston Film Festival and around the world. It came first in the Golden Çınar Film Festival held in Kayseri, Turkey. It participated in the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival. The whole point is to find our story and follow it. As in every aspect of life, if we want to claim something, the only solution is to read and research.”
“The obstacle to the love of cinema is our lack of reading”
Burcu Esenç mentioned that not paying attention to communication sciences is an obstacle. Esenç said: “A documentary filmmaker is a witness. They bring testimonies to life. As we started researching, doors opened to us. The obstacle to the love of cinema is our lack of reading. Our failure to pay attention to communication sciences is an obstacle. We constitute a very important part of the social science called communication sciences. Technique is very important, but to give meaning to that technique, we need knowledge. That’s why you are lucky to be studying at a faculty of communication. Never give up working because reading and working are the secrets of our profession.”
The event concluded with answering participants' questions and a group photo session.