Hrant Dink Foundation holds Films about Conscience competition

PanARMENIAN.Net - For the second year, the Hrant Dink Foundation is asking amateur and professional filmmakers to upload short films on ‘conscience.’

What is it like to be a lonely woman walking on a roadside, or to be a physically challenged person on a “normal” street? What is it like to be a little boy watching his father’s hand rise to strike a blow? These are some of the questions raised by Films about Conscience, a short film project that asks anyone with a camera to “take a look at the world through our conscience,” Hurriyet Daily News reported.

According to Dença Kartun, the project coordinator at the Hrant Dink Foundation for the Films about Conscience project, words by the assassinated Armenian-Turkish journalist inspired the project. “The voice of conscience has been sentenced to silence. Now, that conscience is searching for a way out,” said Dink, who was killed Jan. 19, 2007.

Films about Conscience is a competition. Everyone is invited to upload videos of no more than five minutes to the project’s website. Visitors are encouraged to vote for their favorite entries and publish comments on the films.

Following the Sept. 15 deadline, two separate results will be announced Dec. 10. One film will be the people’s choice and another 20 will be selected by a jury.

Entries from both this year and last year can be viewed on the project website. The popularity of these short films can be seen through the increasing demand from film festivals. Last year’s winners have been screened at the Istanbul International Film Festival, the Gaziantep Onat Kutlar Film Festival, the Dersim Human Rights Film Festival and the Yerevan Golden Apricot Film Festival.

The next stop for screenings will be Ankara in September, and then New York in November. The selected films will also be compiled for a DVD, with the producer of the winning film awarded with a scholarship by the Hrant Dink Foundation.