Ara Güler documentary wins top award at D.C. Independent Film Festival

PanARMENIAN.Net - A film about the life and photographs of a legendary Turkish photographer has won top honors at the D.C. Independent Film Festival in the U.S. capital of Washington, Anadolu Agency reports.

“The Eye of Istanbul,” directed by Binnur Karaevli and Fatih Kaymak, tells the story of 87-year-old Armenian-Turkish photographer Ara Güler and his preparation process for his famous retrospective exhibition in Istanbul that captures images of Istanbul from 1950 through 2005.

From the documentary category, the film won the "best of the best" amongst all categories against more than 80 movies, feature length presentations, animation and shorts at the awards Sunday night. "Actually there were very good movies competing at the festival.

Winning “the best of the best” is a surprise for us. I'm so happy," producer Ümran Safter told Anadolu Agency.

"We want to introduce Ara Güler to the world, both his personality and his photos. But we also want to introduce Istanbul. Our film is not only about Ara Güler, it's actually about the history of Istanbul and Turkey."

The movie was completed in November and made its world premiere at the festival.

Safter said she has now set her sights on her next project, possibly of a movie that tells of how all world religions and races live together in peace, adding that Güler was a perfect example of such a story due to his Turkish-Armenian identity.

Although Güler is mostly recognized for his black and white photographs of Istanbul, he is also renowned internationally for a career that spans more than 60 years and boasts over 1 million photographs.

The Eye of Istanbul will be screened in Greece at the Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival later this week and at the South East European Film Festival in May in Los Angeles.