{"id":23229,"date":"2018-04-27T09:23:20","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T13:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23229"},"modified":"2018-04-27T09:23:20","modified_gmt":"2018-04-27T13:23:20","slug":"in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/","title":{"rendered":"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

On April 23, 2018, The Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) hosted the screening of the movie \u2018Zer<\/a>\u2019 and a conversation with the director, Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z<\/a>, who is one of the leading Kurdish directors of his generation. He is also the director of highly acclaimed Bahoz<\/em> (The Storm)<\/a>, Foto<\/em>\u011f<\/em>raf<\/em> (The Photograph), the short film Ax<\/em> (The Land) and the documentaries Demsala Daw\u00ee: Sewaxan<\/em> (Last Season of Shawaks), He B\u016b Tune B\u00fb <\/em>(Once Upon a Time) and D\u00fbr<\/em> (The Distant). He is also the scenarist, editor and producer of most of his films which have received many awards from numerous international film festivals.<\/p>\n

G\u00fcne\u015f Murat Tezc\u00fcr<\/a>, Ph.D., Jalal Talabani Chair of Kurdish Political Studies opened up the event, which attracted UCF students from various disciplines. Zer tells the story of\u00a0Jan, a young man who grew up in New York and is moved by a song that his grandmother sings to him on her deathbed in a New York hospital. She tells him about a recurring nightmare that she experienced as a child in a terrible massacre. After her death, Jan travels to Kurdish lands, despite his father\u2019s protests, in search of the truth behind his grandmother\u2019s song. His journey takes him deep into his own unknown heritage, revealing sad, violent, hidden truths and the importance of what his grandmother left behind. As he discovers how his grandmother was one of the lost girls of the Dersim Massacre of 1938<\/a>, he is charmed by the warm humanity of people he encounters on his journey.<\/p>\n

After the screening, a lively conversation took place between \u00d6z and the audience, facilitated by Tezc\u00fcr. \u00d6z started by explaining how the Ministry of Culture in Turkey, which initially provided financial support for the film, demanded him to cut certain scenes, which were deemed politically sensitive, before its opening. In response to the censorship request, \u00d6z agreed to black out the scenes but refused to take them out completely. He showed a slide that read: the current scenes are censored by the Ministry of Culture. He wanted to show the audience the film had been censored. This led to protests of the censorship from the audience during the opening screening at Istanbul Film Festival. The Ministry further demanded that those slides be removed.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cThey wanted to censor their own censor,\u201d \u00d6z stated.<\/p>\n

The audience was interested in why the Turkish Ministry of Culture had sponsored a film in the first place if it was going to censor it after its production. \u00d6z explained that political circumstances were different when he first started shooting the film.<\/p>\n

The Kurdish Initiative<\/a> process launched by the government in 2009 opened a space for a series of legal reforms and public debates of Kurdish question in Turkey, until it came to a very violent end in 2015. During that time, the government encouraged public discussions about the Dersim Massacre of 1938 and blamed the current opposition party CHP, which was ruling the country in the 1930s. When the film was ready to be screened in spring 2017, the democratic opening had already ended long ago.<\/p>\n

One student asked if \u00d6z was interested in screening Zer at other kinds of platforms given the restrictions it faced at movie theaters in Turkey. Another question asked about the casting of the main character Jan, and if actors or actresses were having any difficulty in their careers after appearing in a censored movie.<\/p>\n

\u00d6z gave the example of an actress who is now ostracized from the industry, not for acting in Zer, but for challenging of the nationalist discourse in Turkey in an interview. \u00d6z also touched upon the difficulties of making political movies in authoritarian contexts. He told the audience that his duty as an artist was to be honest and to do what he believes to be necessary under any conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is what differentiates artists from politicians,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The KPSP thanks Kinda Haddad<\/a> from the Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Program<\/a> for her gracious help for organizing the event.<\/p>\n

Written by Tutku Ayhan<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On April 23, 2018, The Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) hosted the screening of the movie \u2018Zer\u2019 and a conversation with the director, Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z, who is one of the leading Kurdish directors of his generation. He is also the director of highly acclaimed Bahoz (The Storm), Foto\u011fraf (The Photograph), the short film Ax (The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":23230,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[38,10,13,4158,16,29],"tags":[5675,1502,5676,1983,5618,5253,3613,5677],"class_list":["post-23229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-breaking-news","category-kurdish-political-studies-program","category-news","category-pmbf-program","category-political-science-departments","category-ucf-news","tag-dersim-massacre-of-1938","tag-gunes-murat-tezcur","tag-kazim-oz","tag-kurdish-political-studies-program","tag-prince-mohammad-bin-fahd-program","tag-tutku-ayhan","tag-ucf-political-science","tag-zer"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On April 23, 2018, The Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) hosted the screening of the movie \u2018Zer\u2019 and a conversation with the director, Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z, who is one of the leading Kurdish directors of his generation. He is also the director of highly acclaimed Bahoz (The Storm), Foto\u011fraf (The Photograph), the short film Ax (The […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Allison Hurtado\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Allison Hurtado\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Allison Hurtado\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\"},\"headline\":\"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":682,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Zer-I.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Dersim Massacre of 1938\",\"Gunes Murat Tezcur\",\"Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z\",\"Kurdish Political Studies Program\",\"Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Program\",\"Tutku Ayhan\",\"UCF Political Science\",\"Zer\"],\"articleSection\":[\"COS News\",\"Kurdish Political Studies Program\",\"News\",\"PMBF Program\",\"School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs\",\"UCF News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/\",\"name\":\"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Zer-I.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Zer-I.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/29\\\/2018\\\/04\\\/Zer-I.jpg\",\"width\":1920,\"height\":1280,\"caption\":\"Group of diverse people posing in front of a world map wall mural, smiling in a classroom setting.\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/\",\"name\":\"College of Sciences News\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/sciences.ucf.edu\\\/news\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b\",\"name\":\"Allison Hurtado\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Allison Hurtado\"},\"url\":\"\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News","og_description":"On April 23, 2018, The Kurdish Political Studies Program (KPSP) hosted the screening of the movie \u2018Zer\u2019 and a conversation with the director, Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z, who is one of the leading Kurdish directors of his generation. He is also the director of highly acclaimed Bahoz (The Storm), Foto\u011fraf (The Photograph), the short film Ax (The […]","og_url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/","og_site_name":"College of Sciences News","article_published_time":"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1920,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Allison Hurtado","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Allison Hurtado","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/"},"author":{"name":"Allison Hurtado","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b"},"headline":"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim","datePublished":"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/"},"wordCount":682,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg","keywords":["Dersim Massacre of 1938","Gunes Murat Tezcur","Kaz\u0131m \u00d6z","Kurdish Political Studies Program","Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd Program","Tutku Ayhan","UCF Political Science","Zer"],"articleSection":["COS News","Kurdish Political Studies Program","News","PMBF Program","School of Politics, Security, and International Affairs","UCF News"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/","name":"In Search of a Lost Song: From New York to Dersim - College of Sciences News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg","datePublished":"2018-04-27T13:23:20+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/in-search-of-a-lost-song-from-new-york-to-dersim\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/29\/2018\/04\/Zer-I.jpg","width":1920,"height":1280,"caption":"Group of diverse people posing in front of a world map wall mural, smiling in a classroom setting."},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/","name":"College of Sciences News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8bb1934f9edc028f4b7d6f410d4ed16b","name":"Allison Hurtado","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/941d9de90fb02a8a413287bc0397f3d905623389ca322af7b963e223122b6242?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Allison Hurtado"},"url":""}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}