The Mahalla Video-Workshop

We are experimenting with innovative narration forms in the production of short-films. In 2020 the Filmmakers Kutaiba Hajira, Thomas Büsch and Sabine Küper-Büsch set up an international working group of beginners, emerging and experienced filmmakers in different countries meeting regularly remote on Zoom. In 2021 we are continuing this work with new goals.

The participants of our Film-working-group are involved and supported to join a circle of international filmmakers exchanging their works on various platforms. Thematically the filmmakers in the Film-working group are working on their own individual projects but are also getting motivated to work on collective ideas. Currently all works are published on the Online-Video-magazine Streetwalking. The radius of public outreach will be widened this year with several public and online-screenings during the Mahalla Festival.

Metaphorical Motive: Murmuration

Mahalla as a Festival is dedicated to the positive effects of mobility and migration on creative production.The pandemic limited mobility and personal freedom globally in 2020. Since these conditions still continue, we chose the phenomena of Murmuration as a new mobilizing motive for the Festival in 2021. It is understood as a metaphor for the interplay of solidarity, freedom and beauty. The theme will guide us in our next productions and calls.

Murmuration as a miracle of nature

Murmuration is a formation of migrating birds, mostly small ones, flying collectively over long destinations. Scientists are researching this intensively since a couple of years and suggest these dynamics as the reason for murmuration: the small birds create a temperature rise in the formation, alone they would die from cold during the journey. They build a shield not to be targeted easily by enemies to pick them out as food. In the formation they build a big creature no one dares to attack. Last but not least they are motivating each other to continue the journey like sportsmen of a team do: “Come on, don’t give up”. They exchange information about food sources and resting places. Swarms meet and separate, communicate and secure the survival over these exchanges.

Sabine Küper-Büsch, Co-Curator of the Mahalla Festival, Murmuration Istanbul, 2021, HD, Duration: 02:50