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CONTRIBUTORS | ÇİĞDEM MATER

çiğdem mater

Çiğdem Mater received her undergraduate degree on cinema from Anadolu University, post-graduate degree on Media Sociology from Marmara University. Between 1997 and 2005, she worked as a translator, producer and reporter at international media organisations like BBC News, Boston Globe, Sky News, Radio France International, ARTE, Le Nouvel Observateur and Los Angeles Times. She worked as the coordinator of Anadolu Kültür’s Caucasus Programs (2005–2009), Boğaziçi University’s Mithat Alam Film Center (2009–2010) and as the Turkey coordinator for the Armenia-Turkey Cinema Platform. She worked as an executive coordinator in international projects among which are Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow and Ben Attia’s Weldi. A filmmaker of documentaries, feature and short films, producer and journalist, Çiğdem Mater received numerous awards for her works both in Turkey and abroad, including Çoğunluk (Majority, 2010); Sivas (2014); Toz Bezi (Duster, 2015); Soluk (Breath, 2019); Letters from Silivri (2019); Ah, Asuman! (2019) and Yaban (Wilderness, 2022, İstanbul Film Festival National Competition). As being one of the defendants of Gezi Trial, Çiğdem Mater was arrested on 25 April 2022 on the basis of political – not legal – decisions and without any concrete evidence.