I have for the last two years been reading up on Alevism, not because I am desperate to find a religion, but because I have learned that it may not be a religion at all. My name is Serenay and I am a graduate from Met Film school in London. Two years ago, during my time at Met I made a short documentary about Alevism, all my resources were from the Internet and in the end I faced a backlash from many Alevis stating that what I portrayed was not Alevism, but an Islamic propaganda. I come from an Alevi family myself, but only knew half as much as my parents did, and it didn’t help that they were as dubious and confused about religion as I was. This lead me on to a journey in discovering Alevism in person, through people and places.
You should know that today there is a massive divide in Alevism, those who believe that it is a branch off of Islam, and those who believe that it is not a monotheistic religion, but a path with roots that go as far back as the Bronze Age. There are Alevi's who believe in an afterlife and those who believe in a form of reincarnation. Two completely different beliefs, claiming rights to the same title. It is with this bewilderment, that for the past two years I have been researching and learning many mesmerising things bout Alevism. I have learned that Alevism has artistic and expressive traditions and so in this documentary we will introduce Alevism through it’s songs, poems and traditional rituals.
This documentary will maintain it's neutrality throughout but will show the results of our discoveries and bring this argument to a symbiotic end. We have focused on the pure intentions that we set out with, and those intentions were to establish Alevism's foundation, and we believe we are on the right path to accomplish our goal. This documentary will also provide an insight into the Anatolian culture through the lives of Alevi’s, stretching from London to Turkey. Our hope is that people will approach it with an open heart, question it with an open mind.
Our shoot lasted for 20 days. 19 days in Turkey and 1 day in London. Production cost us £8000, which was paid mostly from my savings and some donations from family/friends. Currently we have an editor, but we need funds for other post production processes, these include:
- Sound Design
- Colour Grading
- Visual Effects
- Illustration
- Music Composition
The Impact
This project is an opportunity to give voice to people who are currently facing assimilation. Today in Turkey, every Turkish citizen has ‘Islam’ written on their Turkish ID card, Alevi’s are robbed of their title and their identity. With this documentary, we hope to raise awareness for the political injustice in the Turkish government today. Alevism cannot be explained in a conversation, and this is why the only way to establish Alevism is through the medium of film, a medium that holds the power of storytelling. This will be the overall result of your contribution, providing a platform for Alevi’s, because when a minority is recognized and acknowledged, they feel that they have a place in society and evidently in the world.
Risks & Challenges
Many of the risks we had previously anticipated did not arise during filming, we hope the same for post production. Now that we are back home, the only risk we face is not raising the money to finish this film, and our solution for this unlikely risk is to approach sponsors and investors, if this proves unsuccessful too, we will again save up and invest in ourselves. But we rather finish and release this film while we're young!
Other Ways You Can Help
You may not be able to contribute financially, but you can certainly contribute in other ways, such as getting the word out there. Use the Indiegogo share tools! Follow us on our social media pages and spread the word, you never know who might take an interest! Just sharing this page will go a long way and will be greatly appreciated. All it takes is for someone to know that there is something called Alevism in the world and to seek it.
About the Team
Serenay Yilmaz - Director
Serenay is a filmmaker from London and a graduate from Met Film school. Her filmmaking ambitions started with writing short films at the age of 23, and most recently she has written and is continuing to develop a feature length screenplay. From lack of money comes more responsibilities and so having to produce and direct her own scripts she started to appreciate and fall in love with the filmmaking process.
Saoud Khalaf - Director of Photography/ Camera Operator/ Editor
Saoud is a London based filmmaker who aims to help change the world one day. Having graduated from university in 2016, he has gone on to produce, shoot and edit a multitude of music videos for a range of successful platforms and businesses in the UK music scene. However his true passion lies within the genre of documentary and having just filmed his first feature length documentary he hopes to continue making films that inform, inspire and educate people.
Youtube Chanel: https://www.youtube.com/user/SKVisuals
