Balkancisco

bu Tugrul Sarikaya

REVIEW

 

"Music is the universal language of mankind."
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

Balkancisco is a documentary that emphasizes the cultural similarities of the Balkan nations and aims to show the artists and listeners who, despite being strangers to this culture, are drawn to the beauty of this music in a completely different corner of the world. The narration is done by Duygu Gün, combining it with her personal life story. The narration of Duygu Gün, who is also the creator and producer of the documentary, saves everyone from being exposed to a dry and educational flow.

8 years ago, Duygu started living in San Francisco and the melodies played by the Inspector Gadget orchestra performing on the street sound familiar. Duygu is pleased to see how San Francisco embraces Balkan music. She naturally wants to reach out for more. And she doesn't have to go far for that. The Mission district in the city is a neighborhood that is home to mainly Latin culture and has become the center of attention of local and foreign tourists with the cultural gentrification it has been subjected to after the 2000s. Revolution Cafe in the Mission is our first stop in our documentary. It is a place where music from various corners of the world is played. Every Sunday there are parties called 'Balkan Sundays' where tourists, Balkan immigrants who settled in San Francisco and even Americans attend. In this café, we see people who go beyond the fragmented political borders of the Balkan countries, shaped by many historical traumas, and enjoy themselves with enthusiasm, catching music from the common past thanks to the fluidity of culture. We witness the atmosphere and energy of the Balkan Nights through the music and dances in the café. Then Sean Tergis, the organizer of this organization, briefly explains how he met Balkan music and how he adopted it as a musician. We learn about both the artist and his experience with Balkan music and his emotional journey. This format continues throughout the documentary.

Our next stop is Marco Peris Coppola. He tells his story and the foundation of the Inspector Gadget orchestra. Then we meet Ismail Lumanovski, the clarinet star of the orchestra. He says that with his participation the orchestra has a new Balkan flavor, not exactly Balkan, different, but beautiful. Actually, it might be right to call it fusion music. Then Duygu takes us to another stop. We continue to get to know the people who organize Balkan music nights. We listen to Zeljko Petkovic, the producer of Kafana Balkan and Jill Parker, who performs Balkan and Middle Eastern dances at such events. They share their own experiences and emotional journeys. Jill Parker mentions that Balkan music camps were the basis of this culture that developed in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1990s. Thus, we have the opportunity to see the camp organized by EEFC (Eastern European Folk Culture Center) in the Mendocino Forest since the late 1970s, which functions as a school, a library. We get to know Mark Levy, an ethnomusicologist and founder of the EEFC, and Carol Silverman, an anthropologist and folklorist from the same university, who have spent years studying Balkan music and folklore. We learn about what attracted them to Balkan culture and their efforts and efforts to penetrate this foreign world. In these camps, we see how Americans also tried to learn the music and dances.

As a result, we understand that the grassroots interest in Balkan music around San Francisco was reinforced through music camps, strengthened in parks and house parties, and became a part of San Francisco's live music scene. It has influenced many musicians and music lovers and gained a place in entertainment culture. What makes Balkancisco successful as a documentary is not only the presentation and narration of all this information in terms of personal experiences. Throughout the documentary, the audience is constantly immersed in the work with music taken from the best parts of the artists' performances. The most important weakness of documentary films is that the audience loses interest after a while due to pacing problems in the narrative. Sarıkaya has done a very successful job in this sense. You can follow the entire work without getting bored and enjoy it. Cinematographer Özgen Göksoy's beautiful images from concerts and dance performances also add to the enjoyment of the work. Tuğrul Sarıkaya, the director of this beautifully woven documentary with music, interviews, dances and Duygu Gün's narration should be applauded.


AIFF