The Producers

Claire Jager: Writer/Director/Producer

Claire Jager is an award-winning writer, director, producer and content originator as an independent program-maker and a broadcaster. She’s worked across drama and documentary development and production holding senior positions including Commissioning Editor for Documentaries at SBS Television; ABC –TV Executive Producer, Documentaries, and ABC Natural History Unit; Documentary Investment Manger, Screen Australia; Documentary Manager, Film Victoria; and Head of Factual at Artist Services.

Samantha Dinning: Producer/Camera

For the past nine years Sam has worked in a range of positions within local feature film and TV
production, script development and for federal funding agency Screen Australia. Supported by Screen Australia, in 2013 Sam spent
four months in London where she worked under the guidance of Producer Lee Magiday and as part
of the development team at Element Pictures (The
Oscar Nominated Room , 2016) The Lobster (Jury
Prize, Cannes 2015), and
upon returning to Australia began work as an external development assessor for Screen Australia
and Screen Tasmania.

Melanie Sandford Ase: Editor

Melanie Sandford is one of
Australia’s most experienced
documentary film editors
having worked in the industry
for more than 30 years. Her
work includes; An Imaginary
Life – David Malouf (Winner
Golden Spire USA), Myths of
Childhood (Winner Gold Medal
Human Relations NY U.S.A),
Australians At War (AFI
nomination for Best Editing). In
Exile , screened at TIFF, Busan
and Leipzig. Melanie also edited the multi award winning Stories From the Stone Age and
The Passionate Apprentice .

Making The Film

From the outset there was nothing conventional or easy about shooting this film. A different culture, a different language, very little money, a bare-bones all-female crew of five shooting on all manner of boats, the worst snowstorm in 30 years, horrendous Istanbul traffic and an environment of political instability and
caution.

After receiving initial development funding from Screen Australia (which funded our initial research trip) we were fortunate enough to secure production finance from a Turkish philanthropist, who saw the importance and timeliness of making the film. In this way the film was unconventional – made outside the system – and as a result we were allowed a rarity - a tremendous amount of creative freedom in our approach. We returned in November 2015 to complete shooting over 4 weeks, this time with an expanded team – from Melbourne, production manager Hylton Shaw, from Munich our German colleague Ines Schneider who took on 2nd camera and our translator Duygu Erucman, a young Turkish woman – originally from Ismir – now living in Northern California.