Director Ahmet Bikic, who is the director of various film festivals in the sector, is frequently mentioned, in addition to his courses such as "Social Media Management", "Drone Shooting Techniques", "Direction of Photography and Digital Technologies" in the Department of Communication and Design. Bikiç, in the event series Coffee Talks, organized by the Dean of Students of Istanbul Gelişim University, where students and faculty members meet every week, conducted an interview entitled "What is Documentary Cinema? What Is Not?” The event took place on the 17th floor allocated to students in J Block.
“Our Perspective on Documentary Films Is Quite Lacking”
During the event, Lecturer/Director Ahmet Bikic talked about documentary cinema and its position. Bikiç emphasized that the society's point of view about documentary cinema is quite lacking and that only "animal" documentaries come to life in the minds of individuals when documentary cinema is mentioned. However, Bikiç stated that he usually shoots documentary films with a "human" focus in his works, and says, "From the way of life, political and cultural structure of the society, that is, "human", he records what man did and that period. Documentary cinema also draws attention in terms of understanding and telling the society. As a low-reading society, documentary cinema should be an alternative warning mechanism to the society.”
In addition, Bikic continued his speech by stating that documentary cinema sheds light on society, culture and future generations. Stating that one of the most important issues to be considered in a documentary film is choosing the subject of the documentary, Bikic underlined that in documentaries that can be watched by all segments of the society, the subjects can be very sensitive and therefore it is necessary to have information about the subject to be shot in order not to make mistakes.
Bikic said in the interview that documentary cinema, which works with smaller budgets compared to other film genres, has been positively affected by the impact of developing technology and digitalization. However, he stated that although technological developments are generally seen as positive, they also contribute to the increase in the number of films that have decreased in quality and increased in quantity.
Lastly, Lecturer See. Ahmet Bikiç showed the participants the films Nisibis Documentary, Karahantepe Documentary, Payas Documentary and Beypazarı Documentary, which were shot with the students at the Film Workshops of which he is the project coordinator.
The event ended after a question and answer session with the students.
You can follow the announcements made on the official social media accounts of the University and the Dean of Students to get news about the Coffee Talks events held by the Dean of Students every week.
