First Frames follows photographer and Syrian refugee Serbest Salih and his mobile darkroom that brings photography education to overlooked communities across Turkey, where children contend with access to school, memory and displacement from devastating earthquakes. The documentary unfolds almost completely from the child’s perspective. They speak about their friendships, curiosities and frustrations while engaging with photography for the very first time. The film embraces the magical nature of children’s thinking and portrays them not as passive participants of their circumstances but as playful, resilient and complex individuals, with their insights and sometimes surprising perspectives.
Biography:
Ilie Mitaru is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and photojournalist whose work centers on regular people in extraordinary circumstances - American cowboys brought to rural Russia to help restart the country’s beef industry; renegade farmers building their own wildfire defense rigs; alone auto mechanic traversing miles of desert borderland with jugs of water to save his fellow migrants, life's stories create empathy and a connection to what at first might appear foreign, but ultimately proves universal. Ilie’s films and photography have been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, The Guardian, among others.
Zeynep Bilginsoy is an award-winning producer and journalist based in Istanbul. She has produced documentaries, features, podcasts and news for international media organizations, including Vice, Showtime, BBC, CNN, The Associated Press and independent filmmakers. Zeynep won an Emmy for Best Long Form News Coverage as part of the Vice team that made the Return of the Taliban in which she helped film the plight of Afghans fleeing their country as well as Turkish efforts to stop illegal migration into Europe. Zeynep was the field producer in Turkey for the BBC’s television documentary The Shamima Begum Story, which was awarded a BAFTA in Current Affairs. She also produced and appeared on the multi-award-winning BBC Sounds podcast I'm Not a Monster: The Shamima Begum Story investigating the polarizing British teenager's journey from Bethnal Green to Syria to join ISIS.
