2015: Much has Changed!

In April 2015 the whole family travelled to the Selçuk Region for meeting old friends and taking part at the Ahmetli Yörükler Festival 2015. Well, that was quite a festival! Most professional and most charming! And who managed it? My old collegue Mehmet Şimşek from the movie who has become the honourable and celebrated chief of the Ahmetli Köyü Association of Yörük culture. He is not only a very remarkable man, but also has very remarkable contacts to whom he introduced me, and in particular to: I am very very thankful to have got acquainted with Meryem Pişkin Kaya, an honourable and most respected woman who is chief of the Yörük Culture Association in Izmir. She provided to me the following image:

Here, I got interviewed for Turkish television in Turkish. In the image you see Meryem, our interviewer, my husband, one of my daughters and me. Meryem is a very stunning personality and if you ever meet her, you will know that women do have high importance in Turkey. And I am very thankful to all the men and women in Turkey who have always supported me at their best. By the way, I wore a scarf because of the sun and not because of religious interests. I never ever got asked to wear a scarf even when I attended religious rites. People are very open minded. And there is much more to tell how the project has evolved the last 4 years. Things changed a lot. More blog entries need to come ....

Finally did the doctorate!

Since winter 2011 there was not much to read about the project and me. Well yes, our two wonderful children came along and there was much to do for being a good mother. Now, that the tiny ones have become bigger, I am quite back from maternity leave and guess what happened? I finished my doctoral thesis (while being a good mother, that is) ! 566 pages heavy and filled with tons of information and insights about Yörük black tents. Any scientist interested, search for "The Yoruk Black Tent - Adaption in Design in the Course of Changes in Production" by Kristina Pfeifer at the "Technische Universität Wien".

The final doctoral viva was wonderful! I did not only finish with honors, my husband and my children were there, as well! And I got interrogated by 3 wonderful professors who had the most magnificient questions to the subject. I really do like a good discussion and am therefore happy to receive stunning questions and detail remarks. Yes, and I did get married in case you noticed the change of names. We had a wonderful wedding years ago!

The Movie is Finished!

On the 28th of August, Kristina flew to Turkey during the weekend just to give the new DVDs of the movie to the Yoruk Black Tent Makers. There was a warm welcome and a big meeting with happy faces. After all, it is also a meeting of friends after a long time as Kristina and her husband can only come to the place once a year.


Thanks to the eager work of Andreas Daniel the movie got finished in time and gets presented in two languages: German and English.

The professional print of the DVDs will start soon!


In Turkey, this weekend, there was a big party of both families of Simsek and Surgun with lots of food and smiling faces.

Still there was some sad news to share. Grandfather Simsek, who was one of the stars of the movie, has died 45 days ago due to illness. He was a loved and honored old man. Everybody respected him and he attained a proud age of 80 years.


As well, all the old tents that are shown in the movie have already disappeared forever, except but for one. And the family Simsek has built themselves a new tent one year after the movie was recorded. If it was not for us, they would have never had the idea of getting a new tent once more in these modern times.

Therefore, we are happy to have done the movie early enough in 2007. Some years later we would not have had the chance any more.

Finishing the Movie

Meanwhile, we have the finalisation of the movie fixed. The end-mastering will take place in the middle of August. End of August the movie will be presented to the nomads in Western Turkey. We prepare some DVDs for each family as presents :-) Nowadays, nomads do have all the equipment to view movies at any occasion.
The advertising will start in the middle of August. We plan to present the movie to the public in October/November 2010. Further dates in the cinema and on tv are in discussion.

The movie will be available in German and English and distributed by the iva-icra.org.

Wish us luck :-)

Kristina

Voice and Sound for the Movie

About the works on the black tent documentary movie:

Meanwhile, Andreas Daniel finished cutting the movie into a wonderful black tent documentary sequence. He also has set the positions of sound and talk perfectly. Now, we are getting the Turkish dialogues translated into subtitles. There will be a German and an English Version. The speaker is ready to go but we have to make some fine revisions in the text. Still plenty of work but we are getting to the end of the task.

New Season

The worldwide economic crisis (starting Sept. 2008) got even the black tent research into turmoil. It is difficult to support voluntary work when the economic base is broken. But starting with spring 2009 we already had felt the improvement of the situation. Now, we gained new strength and are able to continue the expensive development of the documentary movie. As well, we are proud to announce that clients can order new black tents starting with the next season April 2010 until July 2010. Just remember, that you must order the tent in winter so that we can prepare the action. The families are happy when some clients want to visit them and watch the tent building.

So, with optimism spreading, we are looking forward to new challenges for the black tent research!

The Sahara 01

As already announced, we had a fascinating journey (3rd till 17th Oct. 2008) through the desert Sahara. Many people say that the desert is everthing else but not what you expect. After that journey I may say that they are right.

We went on foot through mountains and plains for about 11 days, led by a marvellous Tuareg team and 7 camels. Most of the time we went on foot, rarely we also used the camels to ride.

In this blog, I will post from time to time short impressions and messages about the Sahara journey. Now, for the first impression some pictures about the black tent that travelled with us:

BaSallam (age: 74) is setting up the black tent.


A black goat hair tent next to a modern black cotton tent set up in the prelude of a desert storm. The storm was no problem for the goat hair tent, while the cotton tent needed adjustment from time to time.


Kristina in the clothing of Tuaregs. The "Chech", traditional scarf for the head, is a very important tool in the desert. It helps you breave in case of storms, to replace your sunglasses in case they broke, and to protect your head and neck from a dangerous sun.


We needed a long time to find our way back to everyday life after that trip in the desert. An unforgetable experience.