Ozkan Yilmaz and Apple Tea Filmmakers
Özkan Yılmaz and the Apple Tea Filmmakers (by Ayşe Dağıstanlı)
In late June, I met with Özkan Yılmaz. His name became familiar to many of us after one of the films he produced won the best film award at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival and also the Venice Film Festival. Özkan Yılmaz’s life story is similar to many other successful life stories. He first came to Kaş 12 years ago and fell in love with it. He said to himself “One day I will move to Kaş.” Once this dream became true he didn’t just lie down and relax but he listened to his conscience and started to look for answers to “How can I repay Kaş for all that I get from her?” What I find special about his coming to Kaş is his wanting to pay back to Kaş what Kaş has given to him.
Özkan Yılmaz is the son of a family which migrated from Bulgaria. He was born in Germany and grew up in Ankara. He studied in Eskişehir, graduating from Anadolu University in the faculty of TV and Cinema.
Özkan moved to Istanbul and worked in the film business for over 15 years. He started as an assistant and eventually progressed into producing. He has been a producer for eight years and during this time he produced about 15 films. His are films with “problems.” His films are successful in festivals, so the “problems” are not box office or financial success. That is, for Özkan Yılmaz, the “problem” is that a film needs to have something to say.
Most of his films might be called “art films” or independents. Among others he produced films such as; “Kader” and “Kiskanmak” from Zeki Demirkubuz and “Milk” and “Egg” from Semih Kaplanoğlu and his last film was Çoğunluk (The Majority) which brought in the best film award in the Antalya and Venice Film festivals.
Özkan Yılmaz defines film production like this, “A director or a script writer has a dream they would like to see realized. The producer is the one who makes it happen.” So a producer is the person who would hear a voice say to them “this has to become a film” and listen to that voice and the producer then brings together space, costume and property organisation, cast, crew, equipment and all the other skills that make films happen.
When asked about sponsors, he says he wished there were more sponsors but because his films are not usually box office success stories, people don’t want to invest. Film makers therefore often get support from national and international funds. For example, in Turkey, Sinema Desteklems Fonu of the Ministry of Culture is where they may get financial support.
Özkan is now retired in Kaş. But don’t be fooled when he talks about retirement, he is very young but his success in business granted him the luxury of choosing his life space and he played this choice in favour of Kaş. Thanks to successes in recent years, Özkan Yılmaz is now able to choose the scripts he likes. Being able to choose your scripts is another kind of freedom. He thinks that this freedom gave him the opportunity to realize his Kaş project.
We then came to the project he realised in Kaş. It is natural that a project related to cinema came out of his thoughts since that is his profession, and is what he knows to do best. Özkan recently completed a project with high school students and the shooting of three short films during the winter months of last year.
During his first holiday in Kaş many years ago, and again, after his permanent move, he started to think about what he could do for Kaş. He discussed his ideas with his friend Mado, a resident of Kaş for many years and who is interested in art and culture. Some years ago Özkan had already carried out similar projects in Diyarbakır and Kars with a group of friends. Mado took the project to the Kaş Belediyisi. They did not protest but gave no signal for support either. They said he should wait. But Özkan didn’t want to wait so he started the film project with the aid of the Kaş Kültür Evi. They prepared announcements and reached out to students. Training then started on film theory and lasted for three months. They started with 28 students. The training was scheduled on weekends of two-four hour days each. The number of students dropped and at the end, eight students finished the course. They called themselves the Apple Tea Film Makers.
Although teaching movie making is a difficult thing to do, Özkan succeeded and some friends came to help as speakers. At the end of three months when there was not much left to say, he told the students to either come up with projects or ideas or else they could all sit around and watch films. The students got the message. The came up with 15 or 20 projects. All together they chose three film ideas out of them that have a message to give or “films with problems.” This lasted about a month. After this very useful learning period they started to shoot their films.
According to Özkan, “film making is an expensive toy” because it requires technical equipment and technically equipped people. The material used came from his company in Istanbul. His friends came and took roles in the films free of charge, using their own means to come, stay and work. The film makers and others received no financial support. The pieces of the puzzle eventually came together and overcoming all problems they were able to shoot the first film in February. Editing had to be done in Istanbul because there wasn’t a capable computer in Kaş. It was during a school holiday so the director was able to go also. The music of the film was made by students from the Apple Tea Film Makers.
In March they shot the second film. This the story of a woman. Famous actress Tülin Özen came to Kaş at her own expense and took part in the film. The film makers were able to use the music of Sarp Maden, a jazz guitarist, thanks to the support of Şevval Sam, a famous singer. Özkan Yılmaz mentions how all these people gave very valuable support to the project.
After they finished the second film, the families of the film makers wanted to watch the films. So at the beginning of May, they showed the two films to the audience in the Kaş Kültür Evi. Özkan Yılmaz says that it was an emotional event and a very important day because first the local press and then the national media wrote about the project. The students were interviewed live and they answered questions. It was a significant experience for these students. The father of one of the students told Özkan how his daughter’s life perspective had changed.
Just before they started to shoot the third film, the Kaş Belediye came around and said they would support the final film. Unfortunately this did not happen and this film was also shot using their own means.
The third film is a sea and dive story. For this reason, the waited for the weather to warm up. Famous actress Hande Soral gave support to the three days of shooting. Kaş locals helped by giving their time and expertise. The dive boat, dive instructors, oxygen tanks and other dive equipment were freely loaned for use. Özkan says he is thankful to all of them.
In spite of many difficulties the third film was finished and like the others the editing was done in Istanbul. All three films were first shown to the public for free during the XIV International Lycian/Kaş Culture and Art Festival on June 24th. So this first step of the project has come to an end and the films have been applauded enthusiastically. The next step is to take part in national and international film festivals.
Özkan Yılmaz says “investing in our youth shouldn’t be like this,” that except for the families and some of his friends, they received no other support. Society expects a lot from young people but they should be given support so as to open new horizons for them. If someone like Özkan Yılmaz, who is in Kaş for only one year, starts a project such as this, it changes the lives of the participants. One might expect such projects would be helped strongly. One wants to hope that projects in the future will be supported.
At this point we asked Özkan “Will you continue in the coming years?” he answers “I would like to, but not under these conditions, it can’t be.” He also adds “The reason I am reproachful disappointed isn’t the lack of financial support. This is a question of mentality, a life perspective. The authorities didn’t support us while the families did all they could.”
Özkan Yılmaz says that he is very happy to realise this project and adds “I’m very proud of these kids. They accomplished three really successful films, especially when you think how young they are. They experienced self-sacrifice and responsibility. I consider them as my colleagues in film making and I told them this. I promised them I will always support them in the film business and I am behind my promise. They became infected by the virus and they all keep thinking about movies now.”
These six girls and two boys, calling themselves the Apple Tea Film Makers, have been given a lifetime chance. Özkan Yılmaz held their hands and introduced them to the world of cinema, a world of passion, dreams and fantasy. We hope that the future will give us the opportunity to follow their successful steps in this magical world and the architect of this is Özkan Yılmaz. For this reason on behalf of Kaş and these young people we owe him our thanks. Thank you Özkan Yılmaz!
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