Touring Club brought a cultural service from the dusty shelves of the archive to our culture and art world. The documentaries of Suha Arın, who passed away in 2004 and one of the most important names of Turkish documentary filmmaking, were reunited with those who love his works that shed light on 40 years of life full of film and documentary.
Filmed in the 70’s by Touring Club and later preserved in the Mimar Sinan University Cinema and Television Centre archives, Suha Arın documentaries are the embodiment of Türkiye’s cultural heritage. Almost 40 years after they were made, these documentaries were taken from their original reels, colored through new-technology systems, restored and digitalized. In an archaeology project carried out by the Touring Club between 1974-1980, director Suha Arın was commissioned on site and thus emerged seven documentaries: ‘Safranbolu’da Zaman’ (Safranbolu: Reflections of Time), ‘İstanbul’un Çağırdığı Su’ (Water Summoned by Istanbul), ‘Kapalıçarşı’da 40 Bin Adım’ (40 Thousand Steps in Grand Bazaar), ‘Hattiler’den Hititler’ (From Hattians to Hittites), ‘Midas’ın Dünyası’ (World of Midas), ‘Urartu’nun İki Mevsimi’ (Two Seasons of Urartu), ‘Likya’nın Sönmeyen Ateşi’ (The Unblinking Fire of Lycia).
In order to digitalize and make these documentaries accessible to everyone, a project was commenced in cooperation with our Club, sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, coordinated by General Directorate of Cinema. Named ‘Suha Arın Documentaries from Past to Present,’ the project lasted 6 months.
The meeting of the completed project was held on 28 November 2019 with wide participation in Club Headquarters. After the speeches, the meeting ended with the presentation of the film compiled with short excerpts from the documentaries in the project and a set of USB memory and broadcasts containing the films converted to digital were given out.
You can watch Suha Arın's digitalized documentaries on our Turing Culture and Art Youtube channel.
Author: Harun Avcı
