FIRUZ KUTAL “ZAPATOS” ICIN YAZDI…

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http://www.youtube.com/burakapaydin


Ana von Rebeur kamuoyuna su asagidaki aciklamayi gonderdi. Bildiginiz gibi Ana von Rebeur FECO Arjantin uyesi ve Zapatos isimli karikaturu Turkiye’den bir kisa film yapimcisi Burak Apaydin tarafindan filme cekildi. Filmi seyrettigimde cok begendim ve bunu da Ana’ya yazmsitim. Ona ayrica karikturun zaten tek basina cok iyi derdini anlattigini, ama filmin baska bir sey oldugunu ve kendi basina basarili oldugunu soyledim. 

 

Burak bey’e de ulasip filmi hakkindaki goruslerimi, ovgulerimi ilettim.

 

Ana von Rebeur’in asagidaki mektubu, Filmin hikayesi basligini iceriyor; icten ve guzel bir mektup. Ceviremedigim icin kusuruma bakmayin, ama yaptigi bir isi degerlendiren bir cizerin, filmi gerceklestirmis yonetmenle  sohbeti olarak da algilayabilecegimiz  bu yazi beni dusundurdu. 

 

Mektuptaki tarihsel bakisi, katilanlarin karsilikli birbirlerine kapilar acmalarini, uluslarasi uzakliklarin asilmasi olgusunu, feedback denilen geriveri isleminin onemi uzerine dusundum. Yaptigi is zaten onaylanmis, odul almis ve bir de basarili olmus bir cizerin gecip gitmek yerine, urununden yola cikarak onu dusunsel olarak sahiplenmesi ve bunu yaparken bir cesit yolculuga cikmayi goze almasini, o yolculukta rastladigi cesitli ilisklerden soz etmesi ve basarinin da anaktarini sorgulama cabasini goruyoruz. Bu size ilginc ve onemli gelmiyor mu? Bildigim kadariyla cok az insan yaptigi uzerine olabildigince durustlukte boyle konusuyor, dusunce kirintilari sergiliyor; daha cok baskalarinin baskalarindan caldigi, esinlendigi vb. gibi ifsalara dair epey bir ”belge” var elimizde bildigim kadariyla, bir de ancak bir arkadasimiz bir yerde odul alirsa kutluyoruz; ama su an yapilana, neyi neden isteyerek urettildigine dair cok az soz ve sekillendirme, yani teorik calismaya rastlaniyor. Ana’nin usenmeden yaptigi bu is dolayisiyla ayrica yonetmenin de ne kadar isabetli bir secim yaptigini da dusundum.

 

Hem Ana’yi hem Burak bey’i tekrar kutluyorum. 

 

Bugun benim dogum gunum. Kendime yeni cini murekkebi hediye aldim.

 

Hepinize guzel bir Agustos gunu diliyorum.

 

Firuz Kutal

 

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Not: Ana von Rebeur’un yazisi:

 

The story of  Zapatos, the Turkish film inspired by an Argentinian cartoon 

By Ana von Rebeur 

 

When we are kids, we make a lot of funny questions about life. If later we remember them, we turn them into cartoons. Maybe a cartoonist is the person who is still able to  reason like a child. 

 

In year 2001, while living one of the biggest economical crisis in Argentina, I sent to a cartoon contest one cartoon inspired by one of this particular thought I had as a child . And I got an award , showing Freud was right  when he  wrote  – in “ The joke and  its relation with subconscient” –  that laughter  and humor is a human phenomenon which happens  when we allow  our inner selves to be children again, not  knowing  nothing about solemnity.

During year 2001, one not only was left jobless, but also your editors would call you to ask you for a job . Thousand of Argentineans migrated to other countries. A friend of mine offered me a job in the USA . But I stayed to draw more then ever. A short time before the crisis, I had met Marlene Pohle – present FECO president general ( http: //feco.info) – who was in Buenos Aires for  an exhibition of her cartoons at the Alliance Francaise  . I interviewed her for the newspaper Pagina 12 . When she knew I was a cartoonist too, she invited me to join some fellow cartoonists to found a new branch of FECO in Argentina. Since then, us, FECO Argentina members, had all the information about every  cartoon exhibition, contest, festival and salon in  the world . Instead of getting desperate  for the situation , I drawed desperately. As a result of that, I got seven awards in two years, and I began to be invited as member of the jury on several cartoon festivals. 

 

When I read the regulations of Turkish Aydin Dogan Foundation International Cartoon Contest, I checked on a file of old cartoons based on thoughts I had on my childhood. And I saw this one legged man in black and white. I  felt it was a little  naïve , but I decided to re made  it watercolors because  I was  sure the idea  was original : I é never seen something similar before. And the worst thing cartoonists can do is do cartoons using ideas already used by another colleague. 

 

I made the work and my kitchen table, preparing my children to leave to school. I took it to the Post Office thinking it will never arrive in time. But it did. 

 

Some weeks later I got the news that it had been awarded at Aydin Dogan Foundation.  I was invited to Turkey to get the award, with tickets and expenses paid . It was November 2001, two months after 9- 11, the attack of the Twin Towers in New York. My flight was in American Airlines, making a long stop in New York. I was afraid of flying, but Dutch cartoonist Peter Nieuwendijk  (  a FECO member himself ) calmed me down saying “ It will not happen twice in two months”, and I got on board.  I talked about the World Center attack with the  crewmembers,  and they told me they were offered the  chance to have  holidays  to overcome the panic , but almost none  took it,  for fear of losing the expense wages . The airlines have  given  them antiterrorist training , in long classes of 45 minutes , and they were telling me this while opening juice cartons  with their own cutters with huge blades, while me and the  passengers were taken away our tweezers and nail cutters . A soon as  I arrived to New York – a sad , mourning city, then –  I went to see Ground Zero, the zone of devastation where the Twin Towers  were. It was still smoking and smelling burning rubbish. All the area was of the same whitish color, covered with dust and ashes. On the streets there were thousands of portraits of missing people, pasted on post, walls and displays on stations. I took lots of pictures and wrote an article which was published in Para Ti magazine. 

 

When I arrived to Turkey, they were waiting for me in the candlelit restaurant of the Ankara Hilton Hotel, listening to medieval music with flutes and harps. I had  there the great honour of meeting multiawarded  cartoonists as Eythor Steffanson from Iceland, Julian Pena Pai from Romania,  Oleg Dergatchov  from Ucrania, Andrzej Graniak from Polland , Rezaei Paiman from Iran and enormously talented Turkish cartoonist Tan Oral, among others . We were treated as sultans, and the awards ceremony took place on a beautiful Belle Époque opera house with the presence of the President of Turkish Parliament and  the Ministry of Culture . One of the trophies was my cartoon, “ Zapatos” , engraved in a bronze plaque,  meant to last forever . 

 

In the year 2006, I got an mail from the young Turkish filmmaker Burak Apaydin saying a friend of him has sent him my cartoon Zapatos, and that he wanted to make a film about it. I asked him what kind of film, and he said “ I want to tell the store of what happened before” , filmed with actors, being my cartoon the final scene . Out of sheer curiosity I said yes, as long as he sent me the film when it was finished. He told me he spent months before figuring out who was the author of the cartoon. He had a low resolution version and he couldn´t read my signature well. Burak told me later that when he told his crew that I said yes to the project “they had their heads in the ceiling “ , meaning they  were very happy .  

 

In July 2007  Burak contacted me  again  saying  the film was  finally done,  participated  in festivals, and  was  show non  Turkish TV  with great success. But he hasd some financial problems and couldn’t send me a video by regular post. So, I suggested him to post in You Tube. He did,  and  I was   I saw  the film, I was so moved that  sent the link to all my friend and colleagues . They sent me lots of congratulations and letters telling me this idea was wonderful, and they sent the link to their contacts. I got letters >from India, China, Peru and Australia because of this film, and websites >from Bosnia, Peru and Colombia asked me permission to post this link in their blogs. 

 

The 1st August. Clarín newspaper of Argentina made an article on this film, titled “From argentine cartoon to Turkish film: a filmmaker posted it in New Tube and in five days it got 2000 visits” http://www.clarin.com/diario/2007/08/01/sociedad/s-04102.htm A lot of collegues wrote me saying they were seeing a new kind of art  here the combination of cartoon and film.. A week after being posted in You Tube, the film had 2400 visits and was favorited 30 times. The director is being invited to show it in films festival, like  the one in Banja Luka, Bosnia .  

 

Reasons of its success 

 

The filming of Zapatos is very well done. It took Burak one month to find the ideal actor, until yhey found Fehmi Zubeyir Suzen, an actor who lost one limb in the Turkish Army, and is  in the present a basketball player in a handicapped  league. A crew of 13 people worked during a week on the film, and Burka wants to thank the participation Harun Halici and  Didem Acar in it. ”We worked very hard but enjoyed every minute of it “he says. When they finished the film, they went to a concert of famous classic and jazz pianist and compositor, Gulden Goksen. They told her they wanted her to make the music, and she said she would do it if she liked the film. She liked it and said yes. Gulden is a well known artist, a soloist in several orchestras of different countries ,a  Prokofiev and jazz interpreter who won several awards for composing original music for films. The moving quality of her music is what gave extra strength to the film, from the mischievous climate of intrigue of the beginning to the poetry and compassion of the end. Burak and I are  thankful and honoured for her work. ( her website  http://www.guldengoksen.net/index_content.htmlhttp://www.guldengoksen.net/index_content.html – email  “mailto:guldencaz@guldengoksen.com.trguldencaz@guldengoksen.com.tr)  

 

The film was shot in Ankara, the edition took one month, it was made in Format DV color, lasts 4, 26 minutes and the edition system was Final Cut. 

 

“My previous works are very dark compared to Zapatos “says the director “I loved being  able to say  something about the world in this film. In my previous films I filmed about politics and the situation in Turkey.  Now I let myself get caught by the things that draw my attention, as this cartoon was. This cartoon inspired me, and this film is a landmark in my career. I have lots of letters full of congratulations from the entire world “

 

The film gets around 200 new extra viewers per day, and was posted in websites of Peru, Argentina and Russia, where it also originated a strong debate over its meaning. 

 

Let´s hope the attention got by  Zapatos makes Burak stimulated to go on filming and may inspire more cartoonists to use the irresistible power of You Tube, based on the fact that nobody resist the invitation to look a short, nice film. Maybe this is the beginning of a new form of art combining cartoons and filming based on the simple idea of telling a cartoon backwards. If not the case , it shows once more  that cartoons have no frontiers, sensibility has no nationality and all that moves one person, moves everybody in the same way 

 

Bravo Burak, for having an idea as simple as it is great. 

 

ANA VON REBEUR (ARGENTINA)

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DON QUICHOTTE ARJANTÝN TEMSÝLCÝMÝZ ANA VON REBEUR, SON GÜNLERDE “ZAPATOS” ADLI KARÝKATÜRÜNÜN BURAK APAYDIN TARAFINDAN KISA FÝLM YAPILMASI ÝLE GÜNDEMDE.. BURAK APAYDIN’IN GEÇTÝÐÝMÝZ GÜNLERDE ÝNTERNET ORTAMINDA YAYINLANAN YAZILARININ BÝZDEN BÝR TÜRKÇE ÖZETÝNÝ RÝCA ETTÝ. BÝZ DE SEVE SEVE BU ÝSTEÐÝNÝ YERÝNE GETÝRDÝK. ARDINDAN SEVGÝLÝ FÝRUZ KUTAL BU KONUDA GÜZEL BÝR YAZI YAZDI (O YAZIYA DA SÝTEDE YER VERECEÐÝZ). DÜNYANIN BÝR DÝÐER UCUNDAN ÇÝZGÝLER ARACILIÐIYLA KONTAKT KURAN VE BUNU SANATLARINA YANSITAN “DAHA NÝCE ÖRNEKLERE” DÝYELÝM…
ANA VON REBEUR, “ROBERTO FONTANARROSA”NIN SÝTESÝNÝ TANITIYOR BÝZLERE..

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Roberto Fontanarrosa told that he studied his genealogical tree and that he found that Christopher Columbus mother had his same surname. So, he claimed to be a direct descendant of Columbus. And we can believe him, because in a certain way Fontanarrosa  was the  discoverer of a new kind of comic strip and cartoon . Born in Rosario, a  river harbour in Santa Fé city, Argentina , in 1944,  he died  in his city on 19th July  , 2007 , few years  a fear he had the diagnosis of a amyotrophic lateral sclerosis , a rare illness in which one´s own body attacks nerve cells. He noticed this when he lost strength in his left arm, and then it spread to legs and right arm. On January 2007 he announced he couldn’t draw anymore and sent the texts of his cartoons to his friend, cartoonist Cristóbal Reinoso ( Crist) . His dead shocked everybody, because he was the liveliest of cartoonists, the re- inventor of cartoons.

His major credit was to create the comic strip done with delirious humor and a touch of poetry and domestic philosophy, all full of hilarious phrases and crazy comparisons. An admirer of Woody Allen, he used parody as  his main style, copying in a very funny ways  the stories of superheroes, courageous  gauchos ( Argentinean cowboys) and heartless mafia men  , as his  famous character “ Oily Boogie”  parodying the “Dirty Harry” played by  Clint Eastwood, and turning all of it to the  absolute humor, up to a point where you guessed he had a lot of fun doing it .

He had the same quality as a cartoonist, as a comic autor, and as a writer of short stories and novels. His production was amazingly big, but the biggest delight was to meet him in person. In his conferences and lectures  he showed such a fast mind and wit , together with the ability to take  all solemnity out of the situation , that every lecture of him was full of  people  laughing  out loud .  Adults and children were fans of him alike. And  he had the  inner peace of the performer who knows the play,  word by word , and who knows  he  had the audience in his  hand, knowing when exactly to say the most effective joke of the  night, the one that will leave the audience at his feet , begging for more . People adored him,  grateful of  having someone so full of witty ideas . He was the only one who could speak about cursing and the word “shit” during his lecture on the Spanish Language Congress, full of philologist and serious professors who couldn’t stop laughing. His mere presence made everybody laugh. And he was no clown, and he didn’t laugh himself. He just was amazingly natural and smart at the same time. 

He wrote  33 humor books, (not counting the one where he participated as illustrator), created a lot of comic strips  for different magazines, was cartoonists and writer for Clarín newspaper and a creative collaborator  of Les Luthiers  comic musical group. His shorts stories had been turned into playwrights for theatre and TV, and were always successful. In 2002 he was member of the jury in Aydin Dogan Foundation International Cartoon Festival in Turkey. I had got an award the year before and I had the great honor of informing personally that he  was being invited .He was so gentle as to  send me a postcard with one of his drawings after his trip. In 2005 I called him again to invite him as  member of the jury to “ Humor at the Falls” cartoon  contests in Foz de Iguazú, Brasil,  but he declined,  saying  he could´t walk long ways by then.

In the last two years he got a lot of recognition and awards, both in Argentina and  abroad . he got the  writer’s award at “ HAY Festival” of Cartagena de Indias , Colombia. He got a homage of his colleagues cartoonists on a website dedicated to his love to Rosario Central football team in the website “Fontanarrosa con F de fútbol”(http://homenajealnegro.blogspot.com) . He got an Award of the Senate of Argentinian Government named Honour Mention Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, after the president of  19th century who most did for education . He was named doctor honoris causa by Cordoba National University (the oldest university in Argentina) and he was  given a Life Award during the  award ceremony of  Alfaguara- Clarin book  prize. In November 2006, in the Guadalajara Book Fair in México, he was given the La Catrina award, given before to cartoonists Sergio Aragonés (Mexico) , Quino ( Argentina)  and Rius ( México).

Fontanarrosa was a great writer, a witty humorist, an impressive artist, a simple, direct, funny man and a football fan who t always preserved his accessible and familiar style , letting everybody feel identified with him. No wonder we are missing him a lot.  

 

http://www.negrofontanarrosa.com

BENJAMIN HEINE (BELGIUM)

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Hello dear Er,
below is the English translation of Nizar Outhman’s article that appeared on Assafir.
I did this little “cartoon montage” to illustrate it.
Sincerely,
Ben

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(Portraits: Carlos Latuff by B. Heine,
David Baldinger by Carlos Latuff,

Banksy by Banksy,
B. Heine by Carlos Latuff)

A Tribute To Their Brush…

By Nizar Outhman (*)

Translated by Adib S. Kawar

‘What astonishes me all the time is the apparent and deep ignorance among my fellow citizens in relation to other cultures and the history of other nations. I am a strong believer that they think that the United States is the greatest place on the surface of the earth, and they are completely unaware of the imperialistic nature of the United States…”

This paragraph was quoted from the dialogue with the cartoonist David Baldinger (link), published by the Iran Cartoon website on the Internet. The point of view of this American artist summarizes the points of view of many other Western caricature artists who oppose the policies of the U.S. Administration put into effect concerning the Middle East.

We are afraid that it shall not be possible to write in detail about all these artists, their cultural backgrounds, their thoughts or their nationalities, or even their effect on their surroundings, but it would be worth focusing on one point that had a great effect on many of them. That point drove them to give up their stance of neutrality towards the line of confrontation against what they considered an unjustified duality that subdued public opinion standards in the West. This was represented by the incident of the Danish caricature drawings, which was met with unprecedented Western support on one side, and the “Holocaust” contest sponsored by the Iranian paper “Hamshari” and the Western condemnation and disapproval on the other side.

The works of those artists is concentrated on this duality, and their mechanisms vary starting with caricature drawings through other activities aimed at criticizing the practiced policies by the United States and Israel in Iraq and Palestine in particular, and in the Middle East in general.

The Belgian artist, Ben Heine, took a personal initiative aimed at focusing the spotlight on Arab causes within caricature circles by organizing dialogue among outstanding cartoonists of the world, concentrating on the paradox that the principle of (freedom of expression) in the West is subdued with, and on the duality of standards that controls this principle.

As for the famous British artist, Banksy (link), well known for his huge murals that transformed the mammoth, racist, apartheid cement wall in occupied Palestine to an exhibition that changed it to a painted language mixing between the beauties of creativity and exposing the sway of occupation, and the extent of the suffering the Palestinian Arabs live under.

The Brazilian artist, Carlos Latuff (link), who won second prize in the Holocaust contest, was subjected to a ferocious propaganda campaign lead by partisans and supporters of the Zionist Israeli “Likud” party. This went to the extent of threatening him with death, because of his drawings that criticized the Zionist war arsenal used in the July 2006 war on Lebanon. In spite of this, Latuff displayed several months ago his caricature drawings in an exhibition organized by Palestinian activists in Amman, Jordan.

One cannot overlook the importance of the positive role played by the Internet, focusing light on these artists and giving them daily political assistance with detailed current affairs. The Internet participated by building bridges between them and Arab caricature artists. In the same framework, one cannot deny the important role played by Arab caricature Internet sites, although proportionally few in number, in giving them space to display their works and promoting their most important activities.

It is unfortunate that many of those world famous artists who enjoy great fame in the international caricature circles, and a high standard of artistic-cultural potentials, are still in general unknown in our Arab circles. Their activities, taken by their own personal efforts, are centered on defending the Arab image. These efforts do not have support or patronage by any Arab organization, institution or society. We do not have to remind any body that they are messengers of civilization that made use of the art of caricature for defending just human causes, among which are Arab causes. They did all possible to defend and demonstrate their justice and weight in Western societies, not caring for the threats that they could be exposed to or the cost they could suffer as a result.

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(*) Nizar Outhman is a Syrian cartoonist and journalist, born in Lebanon in 1974. he publishes his work in Assafir, Albalad, Al Nida, Manasheer, Josor, Al Safeer… You can see some of his cartoons on these links : [link 1] , [link 2] , [link 3] , [link 4] and reach him at : nizar_outhman@yahoo.com

--> The article originally appeared on Assafir

NASREDDIN HOCA BIRINCISININ YARATTIÐI KRIZDE SON NOKTA…

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27. Uluslar arasý Nasreddin Hoca Karikatür Yarýþmasý’nda birincilik ödülü alan Igor Nikitin’in karikatürüyle, 1995 yýlýnda Tahran International Cartoon Bienali’nde üçüncülük ödülü alan Marco De Angelis’in karikatürü arasýndaki benzerlikten kaynaklanan kriz (þimdilik) çözüldü. Irancartoon baþkaný Massoud Shojai Tabatabai ve Karikatürcüler Derneði Baþkaný Metin Peker arasýndaki yazýþmalar sonucunda karikatürlerin sadece “benzerlik” taþýdýðýnda görüþ birliðine varýldý. Karþýlýklý iyiniyet sonucu alýnan kararla bu konu kapanmýþ gibi görünüyor. Ancak bizce doðru olan, Nasreddin Hoca jurisinin yeniden toplanýp, ya da internet ortamýnda bu durumu deðerlendirmesi ve açýklamayý öyle yapmasýydý (Zira sonuç bir kiþinin deðil, birçok çizerin kararýyla alýndý). Zaten bu konudaki en doðru karar, iki kiþinin görüþleri alýnarak verilebilir ki; onlar da Igor Nikitin ve Marco De Angelis’tir. Dileðimiz alýnan kararýn “en doðru karar” olmasý.. Zira bu tip gözden kaçan veya kasýtlý yapýlan yanlýþlar, “Nasreddin Hoca” gibi büyük bir organizasyonun baþýný uzun süre aðrýtabilir.


Önemli bir noktayi bir kez daha tekrarlamakta yarar var. Ýstedigimiz kadar dünyanýn en ünlü çizerlerini juride biraraya getirelim (her yarýþma için geçerli), dünya karikatürünü takip etmeyen, ödüllü karikatürlerin farkýna varamayan çizerlerden de söz etmiyoruz anti parantez, tam tersi karikatürle içiçe yaþayan usta çizerlerin bile gözünden kaçabiliyor bu gibi ayrýntýlar.. Ýþte bu son örnekte, “Don Quichotte” gibi internet üzerinden düzenlenen ve yarýþma süresince sitede sergilenen karikatürlerin ne derece yararlý ve mantýklý olduðunu görüyoruz. Benzer veya kopya karikatürlerin sitede sergilenme sürecinde ortaya çýkarýlarak, juriyi böylesine töhmet altýnda kalmaktan kurtardýðý da bir gerçek..  DQ


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