Big Changes - Coming Soon

It's been pretty quiet on the blog since my graduation in May. However, that does not mean I haven't been busy. In fact, this June has been packed with things to do as my departure date for Turkey creeps ever so closer. I promise once in Turkey, I will start publishing more content and photos of the interesting people I meet and places I see.

Speaking of Turkey, that brings me to the next big venture: The Turk Film Project. In collaboration with BC, I will be uploading raw video and small video segments about Turkey, its culture, and my exploits throughout the year. As the year moves on, I hope it will also include segments either designed or at least inspired by the Turkish students I will be working with in Kayseri. We haven't officially "launched," but if you're reading this, you may as well check out our website at TurkFilmProject.com. Once everything is running, we hope that people from both the US and Turkey can comment, and we also hope that a forum about Turkey can develop on the site. Ideally, this will be a highly collaborative project where online responses will help steer the content I produce and also contribute to the final look of a documentary finished post-trip.

It's been a long road to get to this point. In fact, I can say that literally as I finish the second 4 hour bus trip from New York to Boston. I stopped by both the Institute of International Education and the Turkish Consulate to finalize details for my trip beginning next month. I'm thankful to all the support of my colleagues, friends, and family who have helped me get this far. I look forward to showing you all some fantastic images and hopefully treating you to some great stories once the journey begins.

Thawing out the blog

Okay...it has been almost a month since my last post. The last few weeks have been some of the busiest so far this year. With that said, I have a lot of great news.

First, I have an update in my Fulbright status. I have made it past the second round of deliberations and my application is now under final review. Also, many of my friends on campus also got good news on their applications as well. Congratulations BC!

Last week, I also had the chance to join my friend Orhan, a Cambridge College grad student I met at the TCC, for some delicious soup, tea, and Turkish desserts. Orhan introduced me to a really, great Turkish musician, Bariş Manço (pronounced Barish Mancho). I can only describe him as an eclectic musician because some of his songs are really folky, others are more new age, some sound like disco, etc etc. Here is a photo from one of his very early music videos.


Also, it looks like there will be a screening of "In Good Faith" at the Roxbury Mosque on March 22. The screening is tentatively scheduled for 6PM, and will include a panel of those involved including someone from the Muslim American Society and Father Raymond Helmick, S.J.

That's it for now. I've also been very busy finishing a video for Citizen Schools, a non-profit interested in providing better after school options for inner city students, and also a report for my TV Newsroom class on Boston's new cigarette ban. I will be posting those soon.

Home for the holidays

It's been a wild few weeks since I last posted here. From Boston's first blizzard of the season to celebrating Christmas at three different homes in two days, time has been short. With that said, I wanted to provide a little update on how everything is going on several projects:

1) In Good Faith

The original score is completed and I'm currently in the process of submitting it to the College Emmy Awards. I don't expect anything out of it, but the process of applying alone has been a great learning experience. The documentary was turned down by the Big Sky Documentary Film Fest in Colorado recently, but it would have been a great surprise for the film to get such an honor. The film is being submitted to several other festivals including a local Boston festival where it may have more of an opportunity to be seen.

We are also working on scheduling a new premiere screening at the Roxbury Mosque. However, the high holy days and now the recent conflicts in Israel-Gaza are delaying those efforts. Hopefully, things will settle down and I will have more information on the event. Until then, my thoughts are with both the innocent Israelis and Palestinians caught up in this nearly century's old conflict.

2) For Others

Also currently being submitted to the College Emmys by Naz Keskin, the producer of the film.

3) Fulbright ETA to Turkey

I haven't heard anything back from the IIE yet, but many have said that my application seems very strong. Over this break, I said good bye to my Turkish tutor, Mehmet, who is returning with his family to Istanbul. I will miss him and his help, but I look forward to possibly visiting him next year. Mehmet also introduced me to Soner, another Turk studying at BU looking for help with his English. Hopefully, Soner and I can find time this semester to meet for tea and help each other out.

I've also been following my friend Emily and her blog from Turkey. She has been telling me a lot about her friends who are ETAs and how their experience has been going. I emailed one of her friends and hope to get to know him, and how he has organized himself as a teaching assistant in Turkey.

4) Graduate School

I thought I would add that I am beginning the Graduate school search for the 2010-2011 academic year. I'm hopeful to find a solid broadcast journalism or journalism program in New York, Chicago, or Washington D.C. So far, schools that have popped up on my radar are Columbia U., NYU, Northwestern, BU, Emerson, American University, University of Maryland, and Syracuse. If anyone has any thoughts on these schools, I'd be happy to hear from you.

Turks turning up everywhere

In all of the things I had expected to happen during the whole process of applying for the grant to Turkey, one unexpectedly favorable outcome was how many Turks I would find at BC and in the area. Since beginning my Turkish studies in the summer, I have come across over well over 20 Turks at BC, BU, or Northeastern. Sure, you can say, "Matt, you've been hanging around a lot of Turkish places this semester."

I'd tend to agree on that except for two things.

1)I worked for a year and a half on a documentary about the Muslim community in Boston and never met as many Turks as I have now. Of course, I wasn't really looking as I am now. But, number two is even more peculiar.

2) I have found Turks in my classes(non-Turkish related), the Improvisational Murder Mystery Comedy group I'm in, and many other random, totally unrelated groups I have been in at BC for the past few years.

Of course, all of this has been great. I've been able to practice my Turkish, and been introduced to the country by and wide group of amazingly nice people. I just wanted to reflect on how amazingly lucky I've been to find so many people from Turkey through so many random and unexpected connections.

Also, it has been reported that Barack Obama was briefed on Turkey in the past few days. According to the Turkish news source, the report spoke about the "importance of Turkey in the region. Brookings and CFR experts recommend Obama to develop Turkey's mediating role to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute."

A little on the light side

First, a little update. I've been currently distracted with a full fall semester course load, a short documentary project on the Boston College 4 Boston program, and an improv performance that I've severely neglected the blog. But, the good news I guess is that my posting can only get better from here.

Also, some very exciting news, I recently found out where all the Turkish English Fellows were placed this year. According to my list, the fellows are in Denizli, Gaziantep, Konya, Erzurum (2), Izmır, Adana, Balikesir, and Trabzon. Stay tuned for some more specific postings on what each city is known for and looks like, etc.

With that said, I also came into a bit of luck last week. The BC Intersections Program offered an iPhone to anyone who could make the funniest two minute video that incorporated the word "Intersections" and a BC faculty member. Below is my WINNING entry, enjoy!

In Good Faith: Still a work in progress

Some people reading this may know about my last documentary, In Good Faith. The documentary screened last April at Boston College for the first time, and has screened again in a few other viewings on and off the BC Campus. It looks like I will need to revisit the edit for music since I do not have a commercial license to use the music in the original version. Luckily, I found a Tufts student interested in helping me out this summer on the project and will be meeting with him tomorrow. Once I have a version that has no copyright violations, I intend to submit it to a local film festival or two, and maybe try to put it on air at a local cable access station. Anyways, I know a few people are asking about the documentary's status, and that's where I am with it. If you'd like a copy, I am currently making up versions by request of the original cut which you can get here.

Also, I made a few more connections in regards to Turkey today. I had a long conversation at a coffee shop in Boston with a former Fulbrighter to Turkey this morning. She had lots to say about her time in Turkey, not all of it went flawlessly and she in fact had a tough transition due to some wild unforeseen hysteria when traveling abroad to a foreign country. Although, I'm not going to go into the whole conversation we had here, I will say that it has helped me take a wider look at why I am doing all this.

For the most part, I've always attributed my interest to the work involved with In Good Faith and my sophomore living experience, but I do think that my desire has come also from growing up with my Stepfather whose Lebanese background often helps gives him a wider perspective on things. He took a great leap coming to the US, and ended up getting involved with a crazy Irish family from Somerville, MA. Although he made his "leap" for largely different reasons than mine, I do think much of my motivation for getting out of the United States is from the benefits I've had from just growing up around his culture from a safe American base. Now, I can imagine leaving that safe foothold here in the US to take a greater leap into another culture to continue to grow as my Dad has done for me over the last 20 years.

Here's to the journey ahead of us all...


NOTE: For those wondering why I'm noting this is because I'm right now knee deep in a proposal for my Fulbright grant. I've decided by writing my thoughts as they come, and maybe if there are people reading, you may have your own thoughts to share. In any case, this is a pretty easy way of record keeping so I can go back. I did this once before for my first documentary and it was very helpful.