Watching the shadow/ Gölgenin Seyri

Yönetmen: Müjgan Yıldırım

This is a film made from an academic point of view, documenting the facts about the information
that has been “mistakenly accepted as correct or just incomplete.” To mention but a few; the first
film screening actually took place in Izmir, not at Sponeck Hall in Istanbul as commonly believed.
The first women on the screen and on the stage date back to an earlier time than we know. The
person who held the first screening in the palace was not actually the court jester Bertrand. The
first colour film was made before “Halıcı Kız” and the first films shown in Turkey were not “Pençe”
and “Casus”.
We embark on a journey with the documentary “Watching The Shadow / Controversial Firsts in
Turkish Cinema”, going from stop to stop just as the Lumiere brothers’ train... We ask questions
at some stops and sometimes we change the names of the stops and continue on our way...
Hoping that our audience will keep watching our film, join us on this journey…

Director Biography - Müjgan Yıldırım

After finishing her graduate studies at Yıldız Technical University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of
Architecture, she started her journalism career at Hürriyet Newspaper’s “Sunday” supplement and
continued as editor and coordinator in various magazines and television companies such as Tempo, Nokta
Publications-Arkitekt, TRT, Coliseum Life, Karaf Magazin Wine and Life Culture. She earned her
Master’s and PHD degrees at Marmara University’s Cinema-Television Department.
She participated in national and international festivals, including Ankara Film Festival, with two
documentaries she shot (Like a Venus / Bedia Muvahhit and Paris Apartment). She produced and presented
the programs "Hayal Feneri" and "Pencere Önü Çiçekleri " at TRT Istanbul Radio.
Dr Yıldırım wrote and published “Doğan Kuban- Bir Rönesans Adamı”, “Edebiyatçı Mimarlar Antolojisi”
and “Türk Sinemasının İlk Uzun Metrajlı Çizgi Filmi: Evvel Zaman İçinde” which she prepared with
Burçak Evren in 2014. She also prepared many books for publication on behalf of Literatür Publishing,
among which are “Film Yapımının Temelleri-Jane Barnwell”, “19.yy’da İzmir Kenti- Rauf Beyru”,
“Turgutreis-1974 Suha Özkan, Richard Plunz”. She started her academic career at Doğuş University and
continues as Associate Professor at Maltepe University’s Faculty of Fine Arts as the Head of Cartoon and
Animation Department.