Week 11Creative Interventions

Patrick Cahill, Aimee Plant, Naomi Taylor

Outline

• Existing portrayals of immigrants between the 1960s-1980s

• Definitions challenged in:1) Film2) Music3) Comedy

Film Portrayal of Immigrants 1960s

• 1960s: wave of immigrants from Turkey, Greece and Italy begins

• Immigrants occasionally featured in films

Bis zum Ende aller Tage Ruf der Wälder

Film Portrayal of Immigrants 1970-80s

• Exposure in films significantly increased• Stark focus on problems and unhappiness of

immigrants• With the exception of ‘In der Fremde’, almost

all by German producers who treated them as a social problem

40 qm Deutschland - 1986

The 1990s: Situation Changes

• Generation of ‘in Deutschland geborenen Einwandererkindern’ took the wheel

• Portrayal of immigrants went from resignatory and homesick to positive identification figures full of energy and zest for life

Different phases of Turkish-German Cinema

1. 1960s-1970s. Films directed mainly by German directors. Often deal with life experiences of guest workers.

2. Mainly 1980s. German and Turkish-German directors. Dealt with first- and second-generation Turkish-Germans living in Germany - focused on female suffering.

3. From 1990s - characterized by a broader array of themes and aesthetics.

4. The 2000s - characterized by a fundamentally changed vision of Germany, Turkey, and Europe. Influx of mobility and transnational connections. Fatih Akın is regarded as the initiator and most prolific director of this fourth phase of Turkish-German cinema.

FILMAuf der anderen Seite – Fatih Akin

http://alluc.info/watch-auf-der-anderen-seite-online-free-megashare.html

Gegen die Wand

Background of German-Turkish Hip-Hop

• Stems from hip hop’s long tradition of being the music of social consciousness

• Music utilized by marginalized communities to critique the governing system

• Played a significant role as a means for Turkish-German youth to express their opinions on their identity. • Berlin 1990s - youth centers and local government entities were crucial in popularising hip hop for Turkish youth.

• Turkish hip hop grew specifically out of the diaspora communities in Germany.

• First Turkish hip hop album recorded in Turkish = King Size Terror's "Life of a Stranger" (BirYabancimin Hayati). This development created the genre of oriental hip hop.

Sons of Gastarbeita - 1995

https://myspace.com/sonsofgastarbeita/music/songs

• What are the main themes in the song?• The group wants to be a voice representing all

children of guest workers. Are they successful in doing so?

Fremd im eigenen LandAdvanced Chemistry - 1997

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rf71kMr8ODk

• What are the artists’ aims in this song?• How do they come across?

Eko FreshQuotentürke - 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GKJjKW1oEA

In interviews, Eko repeatedly says that he does not feel prejudice towards him because of his Turkish heritage – he feels at home in Germany, considers himself to be German, and can speak better German than he can Turkish. Why, then, does he focus so much on being unaccepted because of his Turkish roots and ‘growing up in another country’? Should young German-Turkish people look up to him?

Comedy

• Özcan Cosar: Umgang mit Geld bei Deutschen und Türken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSfddu_lNOU

• Kaya Yanar: Türkisches Konsolathttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSMLQY20UdI

• What do you think about using comedy to deal with cultural issues? Do you think it is successful?

• What effect does trivializing cultural differences have? Do you think it should be done?

• Out of the three mediums (film, music and comedy), what are the differences in how they challenge stereotypes?

• Which do you think does this the best?

BibliographyDaniela Berghan and C. Sternberg (2010) European cinema in motion: migrant and diasporic film in contemporary Europe. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Filmportal.de: Kino und Migration. www.filmportal.de/thema/kino-und-migration

Hannes Loh and Murat Güngör (2002). Fear of a Kanak Planet. Hiphop zwischen Weltkultur und Nazirap. Höfen: Hannibal.

http://genius.com/Eko-fresh-quotenturke-lyrics/

http://genius.com/Advanced-chemistry-fremd-im-eigenen-land-lyrics

http://www.bpb.de/lernen/grafstat/134580/info-03-03f-sons-of-gastarbeita-die-soehne-der-gastarbeita

Laura. (2009). Turkish-German Cinema: Turkish Migrant Stereotypes in two Fatih Akin films. Available: http://les-nuits-masquees.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/turkish-german-cinema-turkish-migrant.html. Last accessed 6th May 2015.

Bottcher, A. (2008). Beyond Stereotypes How Artists of Turkish Descent Deal with Identity in Germany. Available: http://www.humanityinaction.org/knowledgebase/236-beyond-stereotypes-how-artists-of-turkish-descent-deal-with-identity-in-germany. Last accessed 6th May 2015.

Gueneli, B. (2011). CHALLENGING EUROPEAN BORDERS: FATIH AKIN’S FILMIC VISIONS OF EUROPE. Available: http://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/bitstream/handle/2152/ETD-UT-2011-05-3035/GUENELI-DISSERTATION.pdf?sequence=1. Last accessed 6th May 2015.

Akin, F (2007). Auf der anderen Seite. Last accessed 6th May 2015.