Mizgin Müjde Arslan and women’s autobiographical filmmaking

Mizgin Müjde Arslan is a mid-career Kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. This interview focuses on her documentaries which are self-reflexive and auto-ethnographic. Focusing on personal stories including herself, Arslan wields a double critique of masculinist and colonialist codes of the state as well as the feudal and patriarchal codes of her community, while the complex female characters of these narratives deconstruct the common fantasy imposed by white/Western feminist discourses. During the interview, I asked questions to explore what inspired her to turn the camera to herself and her community and break the silence:I didn't like the story my grandmother and aunts had written for me. I didn't want to be a woman like that. I was able to stay sane for only one reason . . . The reason was I could write, dream, aim for something, and have the desire to tell. When I was young, I was certain that I would survive. I would survive and tell my story. I would tell my story to the world.Arslan continues to tell her story to the world. With the hope to contribute to her journey, I invite the reader to this interview in which we can witness the stories of the films and the filmmaker

Art · Filmmaking · Movie theater · Sociology · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · European history and politics · Gender Studies · Italian Fascism and Post-war Society