Paso Cinema!
The fourth PASO Student Film Festival is beginning two days from today, on Thursday, with sixty student films from all around Turkey and Europe. I talked to Andreas Treske (Assistant Professor in COMD) and Önder Sevimli (Research Assistant in COMD), who have taken important roles in the establishment and implementation of PASO in previous years, about the festival's past and the present.
One of the interesting things I've learned from this was about the name of the festival. The name, the word, PASO stands for two important references. First, it refers to the student identification cards we use on city buses, which is a symbolizing item of a student from anywhere, just like the festival is for students anywhere. The second is about the word 'paso', we use in our Turkish daily language (or slang), to refer to things that often or repeatedly happens. Then, the festival will go on in the following years, with the main element of students in it, as the name suggests. PASO was idealized and initiated at Bilkent, in 1999, by the very first students of the Communication and Design Department, established a year before. And the first festival took place in November 2000. Andreas and Önder believe that student films are assets and should be screened to larger masses, instead of being trashed on some school shelf. The festival also has the aim to bring together young filmmakers and movie buffs, to create an environment where experiences and opinions can be shared and developed.
Besides the surprise guests mentioned in our last issue, this year's PASO festival is extremely rich in terms of the documentary and fiction movies made mostly by university students. I wouldn't want to do an advertisement here, but the movie I've written and directed with my friend Aykut Atasay, 'The Right Place', has been selected as the closing movie of the festival, to be screened on Sunday. Alright, end of the commercial break! The brochure including the snapshots of and information about all the movies, and their screening hours in the PASO Student Film Festival will be issued on Thursday, at the latest, as Andreas and Önder have informed me.
Inspiration for young filmmakers, fun for movie watchers, and a chance of meeting that special someone for singles! I say don't miss it!

Efe Peker (POLS/IV)