In the event, organized under the coordination of AA Academy in the scope of Cinema Trainings with the theme of “Turkish Cinema”, a discussion was held with Derviş Zaim, the director of award-winning films such as “Coffin in a Box”, “Elephants and Grass” and “Waiting for Paradise”.
Moderated by AA Foreign & Economy News Publishing Manager Barışkan Ünal, the conversation focused on the transformation process of Turkish cinema, traditional narrative forms and Zaim's cinema.
Zaim shared his memories of the production process of his first film, Coffin in a Box, and said that at that time, with a limited budget, the only goal was to complete the movie rather than persue big dreams.
Describing filmmaking with different budgets as “lubricating the machine”, Zaim said, "Sometimes you bring your own creativity to a certain point as you work with budgets. This is a dangerous thing. You need to try your hand at other kinds of work from time to time. This allows you to lubricate your creativity and look at yourself from a different perspective. That's why I like to return to, in quotation marks, the guerrilla or semi-guerrilla style after my budgeted works."
"Artificial intelligence will be a part of our lives"
Derviş Zaim stated that he is open to any comments on his works and even finds comments from different perspectives valuable: "You have the right to interpret my works independent of me. And I am glad you do. Even if you don't agree with me, you can interpret my works differently and I like that. Positive or negative. But I have an idea of myself. About what I'm after. I have an idea in the essence."
Stating that, in his cinema, he attaches importance to the interaction between arts and the search for a language specific to Turkish cinema, Zaim said that the tensions and identity problems of the Westernization process that has been going on for 200 years still persist, and that he aims to ask questions about these issues and to produce works by revising these questions.
Upon a question about the impact of artificial intelligence on scripts and films, Zaim said that he is not against the use of artificial intelligence.
Derviş Zaim said, "Artificial intelligence will become more and more a part of our lives and will enter more into the work we are trying to do. It is always being discussed where it is heading. I think it would be good to continue the discussion with a moral philosophy."
Stating that ethical values should be questioned in the use of artificial intelligence and that a good moral philosophy is needed for this, Zaim said, "We need to make a special cocktail for ourselves among many different philosophical currents. Therefore, at different times, in different periods, we will need people who understand moral philosophy, who understand ethics, and especially people who have written a lot of ink on this subject, artificial intelligence and ethics."