Film Heritage: the online film archive portal of Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cinema

ABSTRACT

In this review article, I focus on the online portal of Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, General Directorate of Cinema. This portal which provides open access to the institution’s film archive contains very important materials about the cultural, social, and political history of Turkey and the region. After introducing the main features of the portal, I reflect on the historical importance of its content. I also make comparisons with similar portals for elaborating on issues of cataloging, metadata and interactivity.

KEYWORDS:

• Film archives
• open access
• Turkish cinema

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 For a relatively recent press conference organized by the administration of the Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University about the temporary relocation of the archive and the reconstruction of its building see Prof. Sami Şekeroğlu Sinema-TV Merkezi Taşınma ve Yenileme Süreci Bilgilendirme Toplantısı; For an essay film/360° video about the archive see Merkez.

2 “Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı 250 bin.”

3 Yavuzkanat, “The History of the Film Archive.”

4 https://filmmirasim.ktb.gov.tr/, accessed 10 July 2023.

5 T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı Süreli Kullanım Yönergesi.

6 Film numbers are my own calculations as of 27 July 2023. I have observed that new films are added to the portal, albeit rarely, and I hope that the number of films will increase in the future.

7 On the Film Heritage site, each film has an archive number starting with the abbreviation SGM (Sinema Genel Müdürlüğü/General Directorate of Cinema). In the rest of the review, I address the films only with their ID numbers for avoiding repetitive and long URLs. Readers can access the films by searching the numeric part of the ID number on the website.

8 Turkey Reborn.

9 For the details of these footage and Bryan’s entire filmography see “Films.”

10 Dinç, Atatürk on Screen, 136.

11 Ibid., 144.

12 For an example of the Turkey Today series see Courts of Justice in Turkey; for the activities of the Turkish Information Office in New York see Kaçel, “Information or Culture.”

13 Fairbairn, Pimpinelli, and Ross, The FIAF Moving Image Cataloguing Manual.

14 “Movie”; “VideoObject.”

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Serkan Şavk

Serkan Şavk received his Ph.D. from Hacettepe University in 2014. He pursued post-doctoral studies at Princeton University History Department as a visiting fellow between 2016 and 2017. Serkan Şavk is the co-editor of the book Imaginaries Out of Place: Cinema, Transnationalism and Turkey (Cambridge Scholars, 2013). His research interests include a wide range of areas such as Digital Humanities, history of domestic cinema in Turkey and image-space relations in a historical context. Currently, Serkan Şavk is the principal investigator of two research projects: DOYeşilçam A Data-Driven, Digital and Open Approach to the History of Turkish Cinema funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (projected completion date: June 2024) and MeHiT Animals as Actors, Vehicles, and Props: Metazoa in the History of Turkish Cinema funded by Izmir University of Economics (projected completion date: October 2023).