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A Peak at the Cannes 2009 Short Film Corner: Spotlight on PELIN AYTEMIZ

June 20, 2009

Categories: Film Festivals Best Films

Tags: cannes short film corner forget me not pelin aytemiz shorts

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Pelin is an unlikely new candidate for Hollywood. I met her in ERZERUM on a four-hour bus trip back to KARS, where she was helping to run the Hospitality Service of the Festival on Wheels in Eastern Turkey. Although she had several projects up her sleeves, she was promoting and selling pre-fab housing throughout Turkey in order to please her father at that time!

But when she came through, in record time, with her delightful short Forget Me Not, I knew she had put her considerable research to work on dispossessed family pictures in old markets etc..., a theme that is very dear to her. In that, she postulates successfully to the popular new 'Trash Art' trend where everything can be turned into beauty. A bouncy and brilliant new star on the uprise, here is her film:

UNUTMA / FORGET ME NOT, 2009, Pelin Aytemiz.

"Why does one constantly mimic herself in front of the lens all the time? In any case, her image will appear as someone else. Photograph seems like a mirror with memory. What happens if herself never coincides with her image…"

About the director:

Pelin Aytemiz was born on 7 January 1982 in Ankara. On 2005, she graduated from Bilkent University Graphic Design Department with an MFA degree by her thesis titled "Spectral Images: Dispossesed Family Photographs circulating in Antique Markets in Turkey". On 2007, she completed her second master's degree (MA) by her short film project named "Ephemera: A Short Film Project about Dying Photographs". Forget Me Not / Unutma that is started as a thesis project, is her first film which is realized with a professional crew. Since 2004, she works with the European Film Festival Team. Pelin, who has several writings and essays on visual culture and film theory, is now both a teaching assistant and a Phd student at Bilkent University. She continues her interest on critical literature on photography by making researches on "post-mortem photographs and death" for her doctoral thesis. Nowadays she is dreaming of writing a story for a new film.