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TOLGA
ORNEK'S MOUNT NEMRUD: Tolga Ornek visited VOA Turkish recently and was interviewed by the VOA Turkish Service. Tolga is a graduate of the Istanbul Technical University's Metallurgical Engineering Department. He got his master's degree in engineering from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Later in Washington, D.C. he got another master's degree this time in Film and Video Production from American University. He was awarded a scholarship in documentary film and video directing. Tolga says he studied engineering to please his family. He admits films of all sorts have always fascinated him and from an early age he knew he would pursue his dream in film making. He wrote, produced and directed the Ataturk documentary in 1998 and filmed Fenerbahce right after that in 1999. In Fenerbahce, a 45 minute documentary which he wrote and directed Tolga tells the story of one of Turkey's leading soccer teams. Topkapi Palace Interactive CD-ROM followed Fenerbahce in 1999. This time Tolga was the executive director. Tolga Ornek's Mount Nemrud: the Throne of the Gods, a 52 minute English language documentary debuted in Turkey in 2000 and in the U.S. in 2001. In 2002 it was shown during the annual meetings of the American-Turkish Council in Washington, D.C. For Ekip Film and Tolga this was the most difficult and ambitious documentary project produced by a Turkish crew in Turkey. Sixteen months in the making and shot in fifteen different locations in Eastern Turkey, this documentary traces the story of the most spectacular ancient monument in Turkey. The film attempts to recreate an ancient civilization and its most prominent creation with reenactments, on-site interviews with world renowned scholars and 3-D animations. Produced both in English and Turkish, the film is being distributed by Solid Entertainment of Los Angeles and Documentary Educational Resources in Boston. The film has won first place in the history/biography category of the US International Film and Video Festival in Chicago and has also been picked up by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Tolga Ornek is a charmingly polite and seriously soft spoken professional who appreciates team work. His latest project took almost two years to complete and his team had at least one hundred producers and assistants. He says, "Without them, it was impossible for me to complete this project." Tolga believes the most important factors that make a documentary credible are extensive research and quality footage. Good translation, voicing and interviews with a lot of experts count, too. For a good documentary he says you have to have the best eye catching footage if you want global recognition. He has interviewed archeologists and historians from Germany, Italy, England, Turkey, the U.S. and Turkey. Tolga and Ekip Film enjoyed working in villages around Mount Nemrud. He still laughs at the memory of one morning when they went to a coffee-house and the villagers told them they saw a UFO and thought aliens visited the mountain. What actually happened was that that night Ekip film with a special permit from the authorities used high voltage lights and special effects for one part of the documentary and the villagers saw the lights and the movements and created their own version of a story! Tolga Ornek likes his Ataturk documentary most. "Despite its flaws, I developed an emotional attachment to it," he says. First of all it was his first film. Secondly, he realized what Ataturk meant to Turks and Turkey and most importantly to himself. He talked to more than 200 historians and included eleven of them in the documentary. "The more I learned" he admits, "the more I realized what Ataturk has done for Turkey and the Turks." For him it was scary, too. He did not want to damage Ataturk's image in any way but also felt the obligation to be objective and balanced. He ended up, in his own words, "with more respect for Ataturk not only as a leader or a military commander but as a human being. Tolga Ornek says he looked at the complete picture and questioned everything yet ended up with more admiration for Ataturk than before. "His accomplishments rose way above his failures as a human being" he emphasizes. Tolga Ornek's next project is the Hittites which he says will shed some light on the history of Anatolia and the Middle East. Any advice for anyone with any interest in documentary film making? Of course! Be patient, curious and suspicious. Don't believe everything you read, do your own investigation. That's the advice Tolga Ornek got from one of his professors!
"Silikon
Dans Project" to Tour 5 US Cities 14
September: Martha’s Vineyard Center for the Performing
Arts Choreographer of the group, Burge Ozturk, said the modern dance group would welcome the participation of all Turkish-American associations for hosting support and sponsorship. Theater rental fees, which form most of the project budget, has been sponsored by the U.S. Embassy in Ankara. Transportation costs were sponsored by Turkish State Opera and Ballet. Other technical costs were shouldered by Northampton Center for the Arts and Trinity College. Silikon Dances Project will perform "Room," a modern dance composition, in the first part of the production. The sance, which is the joint-composition of Alpaslan Karaduman and Burge Ozturk (choreographers of Modern Dance Group) and choreographer Mollye Maxner of Chimaera Physical Theater. It has the distinction of being the first Turkish-American joint dance production in history. The second part of the performance will present "Zemin" of Alpaslan Karaduman and "Into the Night" by Mollye Maxner and Kelly Parsley. For sponsorship opportunities regarding this unique art performance you can contact Burge Ozturk at burgeozturk@hotmail.com. |
