Fanatic June 20–30, 2019

Istanbul Modern Cinema presents a “fanaticism” themed program including films that range between comedy and tragedy, and in relation to how media communications define our behavior and make the boundaries between the things we consume and ourselves increasingly more transparent. The multitude of stories in the selection investigate the boundaries between being a “fan” and identifying oneself, and show how fanaticism is a multilayered and complicated concept. Among the films in the selection, there is Rodney Ascher’s documentary Room 237, which takes its title from the hotel room in Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Including conversations with fans, academicians and specialists of Kubrick’s film, and their interpretations and analyses about what takes place behind that door, Room 237 proves how the magic of cinema has a different effect on everyone. Other films in the program include, a favorite at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival,Brigsby Bear (2017), which follows the story of a man who was abducted when he was a child and his relationship with a television show that changed his life, and Ken Loach’s Looking For Eric (2009), a simple and discreet story depicting the relationship between an ordinary man and a famous soccer player. Another film in the program is Müslüm Baba’s Children (Müslüm Babanın Evlatları) about Müslüm Gürses,the godfather of arabesque music,who passed away in 2013 and his avid fans, also known as Müslümites (Müslümcü). The Fanatic program also presents a selection under the title Audiences are Fanatics! ( Seyirci Fanatiktir!) including short films about the fans of Türkan Şoray, Filiz Akın and Yılmaz Güney, big names from the cinema of Turkey, who were included in the “One Hundred Years of Love” exhibition organized by Istanbul Modern in 2014.

SHORTS

HEAVY METAL PARKING LOT, 1986
USA | HDD, Color, 17’| English
Director: John Heyn, Jeff Krulik

At the beginning of the 1990s, Heavy Metal Parking Lot became a cult film for the “underground” music scene. The documentary contains a variety of interviews made with the fans of Judas Priest, at the car park of a concert venue in Maryland right before a show of the famous heavy metal band. Rumor has it that the documentary was also a favorite of the members of Nirvana who used to watch it on their tour bus.

AUDIENCES ARE FANATICS! (SEYİRCİ FANATİKTİR!), 2014
Turkey | HDD, Color, 35’| Turkish

Moviegoers are fanatics. They run after their favorite artists. Collections of movie paraphernalia are endless: pictures of film stars inserted in chocolate bar and bubble gum packages, calendars featuring film stars as well as all kinds of cinematic documentation and objects that devoted movie fans desire. The stars that they admire have become their reasons for existence. Istanbul Modern interviewed three “fanatic” fans that were hosted at the “One Hundred Years of Love” exhibition. Compiling these interviews, The Audience is Fanatic features Pınar Çekirge, who remains devastated by films in which “the imaginary heroin of his childhood” dies; Metin Şamdan, proudly nicknamed “Şorayholic”; and Vadullah Taş, whose passion led him to collect some “five truckloads” of archives on Yılmaz Güney.