Director: Melike Selin Durmaz Ekenler
Turkey, 2021
19′
The documentary “Farming In The Shadows” is about the agricultural activities carried out by women in the zoned urban land in the center of Mersin Mezitli. The process, carried out with the support of the district municipality within the body of the Mezitli Solinova Women’s Producer Cooperative, allows urban women of different profiles to realize non-toxic agricultural production on 1.5-2 acres of private property, which they began with the landlord’s permission. Throughout the film, the stakeholders of the process share their experiences and the effects of this experience on themselves and their spatial and social environment.
She was born on November 8, 1987 in Mersin. With the encouragement of her architect mother, she had education in urban studies. In the city, she realized her interest in agriculture for the first time as she passed by and acquired it in a community garden she attended. She wrote down those days she spent at Prinzessinnengarten in Berlin, first in her diary and then in her master’s thesis. In Belgium, where she went as a participant for a project, she worked voluntarily in an organic farm. She documented her experience there under the name of “Back to Rural // CSA De Molik Creative Discovery”. During her doctoral studies, she became entangled in the notion of “commons” and tried to examine and discuss different experiences in the city, including agriculture. She has produced podcasts and publications on this subject. She is trying to complete her doctoral thesis these days. She lives in Tarsus Mersin with her two children, one and five years old.
Camera: Çağlar Kara
Editing: Nesime Karateke
Sound: Çağlar Kara
Producer: Ulaş Bayraktar