Events

Nothing brings you into an issue quite like seeing it. As everyday citizens and audiences, we are inundated by and oversaturated with information but our knowledge is often limited. Come around the world with us and gain a deeper understanding through the lens of compelling stories and conversations.

In collaboration with UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub and Pera Museum, Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul is organizing the 2nd edition of ReelLife, a three-part film series that focuses on compelling stories on social issues.

Each screening will be followed by a discussion about the film and its social issues with filmmakers and experts.

All films will be screened with Turkish and English subtitles. Post-screening discussion will be in English.

Film screenings and discussions will be held at 19:00 at Pera Museum, Meşrutiyet Cad. No. 65, Beyoğlu, İstanbul.

16 November: Through the Night

(2020, Loira Limbal, 76 min)

What is the personal cost of our modern economy? A look at those who bear the burden of this non-stop work culture, following two working mothers and a childcare provider—whose lives intersect at a 24-hour daycare center.

In New Rochelle, New York, a 24-hour daycare is a lifesaver for parents who work multiple jobs and odd hours to make ends meet. The film follows a mother who works the overnight shift at a hospital; another holding down three jobs to support her family; and a woman who for two decades has cared for children of parents with nowhere else to turn. Over the span of two years, across working holidays, seven day work weeks, and around-the-clock shifts, the film reveals the personal cost of rising wealth inequality in America and the close bonds forged between parents, children, and caregivers. It also conveys the impact on those who take care of others.

Panel following film with: 

Loira Limbal (Director/Producer) is an Afro-Dominican filmmaker interested in the creation of art that is nuanced and revelatory for communities of color. She was the Senior Vice President of Programs at Firelight Media, which is committed to making films about pivotal movements in U.S history and whose Documentary Lab is a fellowship that provides mentorship, funding, and industry access to emerging filmmakers of color. Through the Night was part of the 2019 Sundance Edit & Story Lab and was selected for world premiere at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival. Limbal received a B.A. in History from Brown University and is a graduate of the Third World Newsreel's Film and Video Production Training Program. She is a Sundance Institute Fellow and a former Ford Foundation Justfilms/Rockwood Fellow.

Ilaria Mariotti is a Gender Equality Expert at the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub for Europe and Central Asia, where she conducts research and provides programmatic support as part of the Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment team. Her main areas of interest include women's political participation and leadership, women's economic empowerment and care work, and digitalization, and she is the author of a few publications covering these topics. Ilaria holds two Master's Degrees in International Relations and International Protection of Human Rights.

Özgün Akduran Erol is an expert in social policy and labor and finance issues as an Assistant Professor at Istanbul University. She graduated from the Women's Studies Research and Application Center Master's Program of Istanbul University in 2000, where she examined the impact of the privatization of TEKEL on female tobacco workers. Her book "Household State Market" looks at gender-sensitive budgeting within the context of social policies and women's labor. Since 2008, she has worked with numerous women's organizations, civil society organizations, and municipalities on gender-sensitive budgeting and equitable service delivery.

30 November: Landfall

(2021, Cecilia Aldarondo, 91 min)

A prismatic portrait of collective trauma and resistance, as a devastating hurricane hits Puerto Rico as it struggles through a debt crisis. A look at the kinship of these two storms--one environmental, the other economic--juxtaposing competing utopian visions of recovery, from local residents and outside “helpers”.

The film is ab intimate and lyrical portrait of trauma, resilience, and resistance in Puerto Rico at a time when economic, political, and ecological forces post-Hurricane María have created a breeding ground for new predatory colonial practices. Told through the experiences of a close-knit community of hopeful and politicized people and through the encounters with cryptocurrency traders, luxury real estate developers, and newcomers flooding the island, the film raises vital questions about identity, survival, and recolonization.

Panel following film with: 

Cecilia Aldarondo is a documentary director-producer from the Puerto Rican diaspora who makes films at the intersection of poetics and politics. Her feature documentary Memories of a Penitent Heart (Tribeca 2016) had its World Premiere at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival and was broadcast on POV in 2017. She is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow, a 2017 Women at Sundance Fellow, two-time MacDowell Colony Fellow, and recipient of a 2019 Bogliasco Foundation Residency. In 2019 she was named to DOC NYC's 40 Under 40 list and is one of Filmmaker Magazine’s 25 New Faces of Independent Film for 2015. She teaches at Williams College.

Stanislav Kim is the Team Leader for the Climate Change and Disaster Resilience Team at the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub, with an extensive background spanning over 25 years in development, disaster risk reduction, energy and environmental programs throughout Europe and Central Asia. He supports 19 countries and territories in the region to strengthen their resilience against disasters driven by natural hazards, promoting risk-informed development, and supporting their disaster response and recovery endeavors.

Murat Güney is a social scientist specializing in urban resilience and disaster preparedness, with a PhD in anthropology from Columbia University. He has explored how disaster capitalism affects construction in earthquake-prone Istanbul and has worked with the Istanbul Planning Agency to develop policies for disaster resilience. Güney has taught anthropology at Boston University and conducted postdoctoral research at York University's City Institute. He is also an editor of several books and journals, including "Massive Suburbanization" and the science-fiction journal "Davetsiz Misafir."  

12 December: Delikado

(2022, Karl Malakunas, 94 min)

An idyllic tropical island, one of the Philippines hottest new tourist destinations, is ground zero for a struggle between development and environment. Against the backdrop of the climate crisis, three environmental crusaders try to stop politicians and businessmen from destroying the country’s “last ecological frontier”.

Palawan’s powder-white beaches and lush forests have made it one of Asia’s hottest new tourist destinations. But for a tiny network of environmental crusaders and vigilantes trying to protect its spectacular natural resources, it is more akin to a battlefield. The film follows Bobby, Tata and Nieves, three magnetic leaders of this network, as they risk their lives in David versus Goliath-style struggles. 

Land defenders are being killed in record numbers trying to save natural resources from being plundered by corporations and governments. And drug wars are used as a tool for politicians to control the levers of economic and political power. The film exposes President Rodrigo Duterte’s “war on drugs” in the Philippines, which has claimed thousands of lives and the International Criminal Court of Justice has said may amount to a crime against humanity.

Panel following film with:

Karl Makunas is a filmmaker and journalist who has been based in Asia—covering environmental issues, conflict, natural disasters and political upheavals—for two decades. Karl is the Asia-Pacific Deputy-Editor-In-Chief for Agence France-Presse based in Hong Kong. He is a Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program Fellow and a recipient of the SFFILM Vulcan Productions Environmental Fellowship. He lived in the Philippines for eight years while working as Manila Bureau Chief for AFP. His environmental reporting around the world has included covering the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris, the aftermath of Super Typhoon Haiyan in the eastern Philippines, and the coal-powered rise of China’s economy.

Walid Ali is the UNDP Regional Policy Specialist on Climate, Peace and Security for Europe and Central Asia region. For 15 years, he has worked with UNDP on climate change, risk management and environmental conservation. He focuses on low-carbon and climate resilient development with extensive field experience on community livelihood resilience, biodiversity conservation, natural resource management and ecosystem restoration and gives support to address the emerging threats by environmental degradation and climate change on peace and security particularly in fragile and conflict affected contexts.

Begüm Özkaynak is a Professor of Economics at Boğaziçi University, specializing in sustainability economics, ecological economics, and political ecology. Her focus is on environmental conflicts, justice, and energy governance. She has held key roles in several academic and professional organizations, including serving as a board member and Secretary of the European Society of Ecological Economics. Özkaynak has coordinated projects funded by the FP7 and the International Social Science Council, and has contributed as a lead author to multiple UNEP assessments and the IPBES. She holds advanced degrees from Boğaziçi University, the University of Manchester, and Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, and has been co-editor-in-chief of the Ecological Economics journal since 2022.

This screening series is an initiative of the UNDP Istanbul Regional Hub and Columbia Global Centers | Istanbul, in partnership with Pera Museum.