First Frames – Ilie Mitaru

A refugee-run mobile photo project brings tools of self-expression to Turkey’s most vulnerable children grappling with displacement and access to education.

Director/cinematographer : Ilie Mitaru – Website / Instagram

Producer : Zeynep Bilginsoy – Website / Instagram

Cinematographer : Luke Boelitz – Website / Instagram

Editor : Yalda Mostajeran – Website / Instagram

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Serbet’s new photo Organization : Fotohane

Published on WePresent, by WeTransfer

First Frames follows photographer and Syrian refugee Serbest Salih and his mobile darkroom that brings photography education to overlooked communities across Turkey, where children contend with access to school, memory and displacement from devastating earthquakes.

The documentary unfolds almost completely from the child’s perspective. They speak about their friendships, curiosities and frustrations while engaging with photography for the very first time. The children become collaborators in the documentary, capturing their worlds through their unique filming.

The film embraces the magical nature of children’s thinking and portrays them not as passive subjects of their circumstances but as playful, resilient and complex individuals, with their insights and sometimes surprising perspectives.

Director Statement

My goal with First Frames is to bring the audience intimately into the children’s world.

There is something universal about watching a child discover a new way of expressing themselves, of watching as they begin to engage with the world through this lens.

Ultimately, the objective of the film is to tap into this universal experience, to tell the story of Sirkhane Darkroom almost exclusively from the child’s perspective, to let the children’s images, videos, their ideas and perspectives provide the emotional scaffolding for the film.

The circumstances — lack of access to education, displacement from earthquakes — are difficult, especially for young children. But we don’t portray our subjects as victims of these circumstances, but rather fully complex human beings with agency over their situations and how they choose to respond to it.

Their responses were surprising and complex. But rather than flatten these tangents of childlike introspection, we choose to embrace these perspectives, and build the film off of these moments.

And while the context of our film is of course unique, my hope is that First Frames fosters a deeper understanding of, and empathy for, vulnerable children around the world.

© First Frames – All rights reserved