JAZZ IN TURKEY
Türkiye’de Caz

In Competition

Directed by Batu Akyol
Doc. / 100 min. / 2013

Synopsis

Jazz in Turkey explores the conditions, evolution and interaction of Turkish jazz music and its musicians, in reference to Turkish history. Compiled from interviews with 50 people, it partially carries elements of a chronological historical documentary, aiming to voice a sincere "interpretation" of how outright facts are perceived in different social strata, rather than revealing buried historical truth.

Selected Festivals and Awards

* Sofia MENAR Film Festival, Bulgaria
* Ujbuda Jazz Festival, Budapest, Hungary
* Cines Del Sur Film Festival, Corral Del Carbon, Spain
* Mpumalanga Short Film Festival, South Africa
* San Francisco Global Film Festival, U.S.A.
* Istanbul Film Festival, Turkey
* London Turkish Film Festival, U.K.
* TRT Documentary Days, Istanbul, Turkey

Batu AKYOL

Batu Akyol has a degree in Geophysical Engineering. He was first involved with documentary making during his university years by filming the first research project for the underwater fauna of Ataturk Barrage in which he participated as a diving instructor. The project was published at the Underwater Science Congress in 1998. After his graduation, he worked for 12 years as a professional in Information Technologies. He took directing classes at the New York Digital Film Academy's Istanbul branch in 2009 and started shooting "The Last Flavor Stop of the Orient Express: Pera Palace" in 2010. By the end of 2010, he produced "Sultans of the Kitchen" in collaboration with the Anatolian Folk Cuisine Association as one of the "2010 European Capital of Culture: Istanbul" projects.  He established his production company, Loyka Productions and has been producing many documentaries since then.  In 2011, he started working on "Jazz in Turkey" documentary movie, the first of its kind, where he researched the milestones of Jazz music history in Turkey. The film was released it in 2013, after two years of intensive research and interviews with more than 50 highly respected pioneers in their field, including Quincy Jones, Herbie Hancock, Cüneyt Sermet, Terence Blanchard, Maffy Falay, Emin Fındıkoğlu, and Okay Temiz. In 2013, Batu Akyol completed his web-documentary "Second Hand", a movie about the situation of animals shelters and its abandoned residents.