Bitter Things: Mothering from Afar - Short Film Program

BITTER THINGS is a research-based exhibition project by bi’bak that explores the impact of labor migration on the notion of motherhood from the perspectives of women migrant workers and children left-behind. In their installation, artists Malve Lippmann and Can Sungu take experiences of transnational families from both past and present as a point of departure and bring narratives together with silent objects, which fill the physical distance within the families.
The detailed program: http://bi-bak.de/category/bitterthings/

Mothering from Afar - SHORT FILM PROGRAM
Thursday, 04 Oct 2018 at 19:30
Free admission
The screening is followed by a discussion with Hilal Alkan Zeybek from Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient.

Films:
- Loin du 16ème | Far from the 16th- Daniela Thomas (France, 2006, 5 min.)
- Calea Dunării | The Course of the Danube - Sabin Dorohoi (Romania, 2013, 13 min.)
- 媽媽離家上班去 | Homecoming (Hong Kong, 2009, 30 min.)
- Hasta Bakıcı | Abigail - Soner Sert (Turkey, 2017, 17 min.)
- Kot Farkı | Ground Level - Ayris Alptekin (Turkey, 2016, 11 min.)

The short film program focuses on the living and working conditions of immigrant workers in very different countries and discusses the difficult circumstances in which women seek to gain a future for their children left behind in their countries of origin. Loin du 16ème / Far from the 16th shows a Spanish immigrant in Paris who gives her own baby to a daycare early in the morning to look after the baby of a rich family in her job. A ten-year-old boy follows the Calea Dunării / The Course of the Danube from Romania to Vienna to find his parents. The nanny Charlie, after years of work in Hong Kong, is preparing for the long-awaited Homecoming to her son, but suddenly unexpected problems arise. Hasta Bakıcı / Abigail and Kot Farkı / Ground Level address the everyday work of care-givers in Istanbul.
More Info: http://bi-bak.de/bibakino/mothering-from-afar/

Event Guest: Hilal Alkan Zeybek
Hilal Alkan received her MA in Sociology from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul and her PhD in Political Science from the Open University, UK. In her dissertation she focused on civic charitable initiatives in Turkey and the relationships of care that developed between the volunteers and beneficiaries of these initiatives. Since 2016 she is living in Berlin and working on her project titled “The Dyad of Care and Discipline: Aiding Syrian Migrants in Turkey and Germany” at the Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, while teaching at Alice Salomon Hochschule. Alongside migration and welfare provision, her research interests include gendered spatial formations, women’s experiences of war, and care ethics.

Screening start at 20:00. Please make sure you arrive before the start of the film.