Bozcaada International Ecological Documentary Festival: ‘Local, small, slow’
We spoke with Nigar Mat, events coordinator of the Bozcaada International Ecological Documentary Festival, about the festival’s bond with the local community, the island’s ecological problems and what it takes to sustain a festival through solidarity.
Some festival invitations excite you from the very first message, because they let you feel why they want you there. The invitation from Beyza Aksoy of the BİFED team was like that: it was clear she cared about the relationship I try to build between cinema and its social and cultural context, and she said she had been thinking about how this might intersect with the festival.
I found here the same reasons I love festivals that blend into local life, such as those in Ayvalık and Kaş, but the season being truly over created an entirely different feeling: the island seemed less a busy tourist destination than a small world given over to the festival. Although I could not stay until the end, I am glad I was able to see what BİFED’s motto, “Local, Small, Slow”, really means in practice, and to breathe the air of this world for a few days.
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