A transgender man struggles with self-realization and acceptance in traditional society of Turkey. Constrained by identification cards color-coded for gender, will he finally be considered for a Blue ID?

Vuslat Karan is a filmmaker living in Istanbul with BFA in Film and Television from Marmara University. Her short films Tangled (2011) and Scorpion (2010) debuted at !f istanbul film festival. She also wrote and directed a documentary-narrative hybrid short Uprooting From the City (2006) about the urban transformation, gentrification and relocation of the Romany neighborhoods in Istanbul.

Burcu Melekoglu works as a director and editor in Istanbul. She received a BSE in Systems Engineering from University of Pennsylvania and MA from UCLA School of Film and Television. Previously she worked as an assistant director in commercials, TV and film projects in LA. Short Documentary Work: My First Second Home (2006, Philadelphia IGLF Festival, Chicago Reeling Festival, Girl Fest Hawaii, Poppy Jasper, Out for Reel), Reiki (2002), Bamako (2000).

Doc Next Network strives for social justice and inclusive public opinion in Europe, through our common methodology that supports the ideas of access, free culture and expanded education in which (digital) media plays a crucial  role. What started as local activities by four organisations has now transformed into one European methodology and practice. We provide space in locally rooted but internationally linked media labs where young creators develop media-craftmanship and media-criticism. We are building an archive of contemporary Europe with our media collection by young creators. And we contribute to and engage others in the investigation and discussion of media in our societies.

Grain Media is a London based film production company. We produce a diverse range of content from investigative documentaries through to scripted feature films although much of our output has a social edge. Our last feature documentary, Virunga, directed by Grain Media co-founder Orlando von Einsiedel, very much had a social agenda at its heart. The film also won 44 international film awards, including a Peabody, and was nominated for an Oscar and a BAFTA.

We are currently developing a number of cinematic propositions that deal with issues as wide ranging as war and genocide through to environmental destruction and species extinction.

We are really excited to be using a grant from Kindle to help take these projects into a production phase.

Grey Filastine is the composer of a gritty electronic music colliding the lowest frequencies of bass music with the highest-level beat science, acoustic instruments and field recordings. His music work often features Javanese indie rapper Novaand avant-garde cellist Brent Arnold. Filastine also makes award-winning videos, designed a post-crash currency, and conducts public sound interventions. By whatever media, Filastine works to undermine borders and hack the gap that divides humanity from our ecosystem. He is based in Barcelona but spends most of the year working on the road.

Juice Rap News – the online comedy rap current affairs phenomenon that rhymes the News with true views to restore your faith in the Fourth Estate.

A fusion of biting satire, rigorous academic research, anarchic home-made costuming, and deftly-performed rap rhyming, Juice Rap News is a cult success story of the interwebs which quickly garnered a loyal online following, racking up over 12 million views over 30 episodes, and featuring cameos with icons and influential figures such as Julian Assange, Noam Chomsky, Normal Finkelstein and Senator Scott Ludlam.

The hard-hitting and hilarious news show broadcasts free on YouTube and is created by Giordano Nanni and Hugo Farrant, who combine their skills of philosophy, historical perspective, comedy and rap together into a unique and addictive brew. The team are now working on Season 4 of the series, and are looking forward to opening more people’s eyes to the truth of the show’s slogan: History Is Happening.

 

Nika Khanjani is a film and video artist, writer, and activist. Her work is marked by contrasting extremes and a patient sense of beauty. She combines landscape photography, subtle sound design, and portraiture to invoke internal states responsive to external political and historical forces.

Inspired by Donella Meadows’ hierarchy of leverage points to intervene in a complex system, reSTORY seeks to work at the point of highest leverage; the paradigm out of which our culture arises. The goal of the reSTORY Alliance is to contribute to shifting the paradigm on which our society is based to one that yields a more compassionate, bio-diverse and regenerative world.

Purely issue-based communications have a limited ability to reach and move people, and there seems to be an endless stream of issues to be addressed. ReStory attempts to address the shortcomings of the un-contextualized, siloed, issue-based communications. ReSTORY drops down a level to grasp and map the menu of cultural assumptions that are at the root of nearly all issues we currently face. Oriented within the illuminated landscape of predominantly unspoken and unacknowledged assumptions, the “reSTORY activist” is radically empowered, armed with unprecedented context and perspective.

(T)ERROR is the first documentary to place filmmakers on the ground during an active FBI counterterrorism sting operation. Through the perspective of Saeed “Shariff” Torres, a 63-year-old former Black Panther turned informant, viewers get an unfettered glimpse of the government’s counterterrorism tactics and the murky justifications behind them. The film also examines Saeed’s turbulent history, from “revolutionary patriot” to foot soldier in the global war on terror, and intimately captures the unraveling of his 20-year career with the FBI. Taut, stark and controversial, (T)ERROR illuminates the fragile relationships between individual and surveillance state in modern America, and asks who is watching the watchers? (T)ERROR premiered at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Prize for Break Out First Feature. The film will receive a national theatrical release in the fall of 2015, and a national broadcast on PBS in early 2016.