ZeNistaN A Live Documentary Experience

It may look like a Labubu unboxing, but it is actually an unpacking of socioeconomic trends...

Türkiye’s modernization adventure is an intermittent one that carries the pains of transition from empire to republic and of geographical liminality in every aspect of culture. At the center of this arduous modernist attitude in art is İlhan Usmanbaş, who was born in 1921 in the Ottoman Empire, whose atonal music of the 1950s influenced not only the field of music but also literature. As an essay film, Modernist: Usmanbaş both traces the composer's insistence on playing 20th century music in his compositions and visual notation and follows him in the private nursing home where he lived from the age of 100 to 103. While the film records Usmanbaş's curiosity in natural history and the intellectual structure he built between music, science and mathematics with the testimonies of the last years of his life, it also makes references to modernist art in formal terms as a meta attitude.

The hundreds of letters left behind after Latif Demirci's passing describe not only a illustrator's fanbase, but the troubles and dreams of a certain era in Turkey, and a human spirit naive enough to confide in a cartoon hero. While the documentary traces the loss between the slowness of the letter and today's culture of speed, it puts forth a very original portrait of the artist, highlighted by the contributions of his filmmaker daughter Yasemin Demirci, his artistic partner Behiç Pek, and comic book historian Levent Cantek.

Brought to life from the outtakes of director Deniz Yüksel’s long-running Lale Müldür documentary, "Lale Müldür and All the Nightclubs of Istanbul" brings to light a memory of the poet alongside a previously unpublished piece of her writing. The music for the documentary, edited for Postbellek, was produced by Atonal Sounds.

Queen Elizabeth I commissions a magnificent mechanical organ for Sultan Mehmed III, crafted by the famed Thomas Dallam. The organ, adorned with singing birds and celestial mechanisms, is shipped over six months of treacherous seas. Upon arrival, Dallam assembles it and personally plays the organ as the Sultan eagerly awaits. Yet, despite its grandeur, the organ’s story ends in tragedy. Postbellek's short documentary was produced with the guidance and narration of Emre Aracı, and it leverages artificial intelligence by Atıl Altaş.

A collection of 8mm film reels from İlhan Mimaroğlu’s archive—once tucked away in whisky boxes—has found new life through art. Curated by director Serdar Kökçeoğlu and producer Dilek Aydın, the project brings together visual artists and musicians to reimagine these long-lost images. Over thirty artists transformed the footage into fifteen distinct audiovisual pieces, blending experimental soundscapes with contemporary video art. The project concludes with a special highlight: the first-ever screening of Mimaroğlu’s silent short film about a street jazz festival, accompanied by Erdem Helvacıoğlu’s dark jazz score.

We take a closer look at Istanbul’s cats, their history, and their place in civilization during a short tour of the Cihangir neighborhood with Gündüz Vassaf, the author of The Cat in Istanbul.

In an age where silence is complicity, Muslimgauze: Electronic Intifada resurrects the haunting pulse of Bryn Jones—the Manchester-born musician who devoted his entire life to the Palestinian struggle without ever setting foot in the Middle East. Through the voices of his publisher and best friend, Geert-Jan Hobijn, Turkish musician Ekin Fil, and Turkish author Şule Demirtaş, the film traces Jones’s obsessive solitude and commitment in the studio, where he crafted a sonic battlefield of noise, resistance, and distortion. Postbellek's short documentary Muslimgauze: Electronic Intifada unfolds where the political collides with the artistic—a visual translation of noise into awakening. Confronting the uneasy intersections of politics, art, and representation, it is not a eulogy but a provocation: a reminder that resistance can echo louder than words—and sometimes, from the most unexpected corners of the world.

Ever-innovative and pioneering contemporary composer İlhan Usmanbaş celebrated his 100th birthday! Usmanbaş shared his life story with #BirGünTV.

To speak of jazz in Turkey is to speak of Kerem Görsev. In this intimate short documentary, director Levent Türkan sits down with the maestro to unravel İstanbul’s profound impact on his art. Together, they explore his hidden inspirations and the true musical pulse of the city. A deeply personal journey into the soul of Kerem Görsev, the essence of jazz, and the beating heart of İstanbul.

An archival biography in three chapters, exploring the revolutionary potential of being a cinephile... A war pilot, a radical revolutionary, and a cinephile... This is the portrait of a man who left the army and built a successful career as businessman in Europe. Only a few people knew that he was also an undercover member of the resistance movement against Turkey’s military regime in early 1970s. Mekin Gönenç later dedicated most of his life to the movies. When he died after suffering a heart attack while swimming in 2011, he left behind thousands of VHS tapes and meticulously crafted home-made film journals. His death between the two blues he cherished most—the sea and the sky— now give some consolation to his wife. Through archives, we trace the journey of a 20th-century romantic. (DokuFest, Balkan Dox, 2025 )