Framing the Mayor is a political, experimental documentary constructed entirely through archival footage. It focuses on the unlawful arrest of Istanbul’s mayor as an attempt to eliminate a key political opponent, and the protests it provoked. It embraces a subjective perspective rather than the conventional pursuit of neutrality in documentary filmmaking. It acknowledges the filmmaker’s role in shaping meaning and invites viewers to question whether political documentaries can or should be objective.
Pelin Pala is interested in how films shape the way we understand and interpret the world, and how the same story can look completely different depending on the person who tells it. In her work she focuses on how the way a story is told can influence what is noticed, felt, and remembered.
