Hatice Ozlem Sariyildiz
Turkey
- Program Year
- 2004-05
- Country of Current Residence
- Turkey
- City/Town of Current Residence
- Ankara
- Current Position
- Graphic Designer
- Organization
- Freelance
- Profession(s)
Graphic Designer, Filmmaker, Reporter
- Sector(s)
- Communications (including media), Film, Graphic design
- Language(s)
- English, Turkish
- Interest(s) / Expertise
- cultural studies, film, graphic design, media
Ozlem is a graduate of the Middle East Technical University’s Department of Industrial Design. She is continuing her studies at the Graduate School of Social Sciences in Media and Cultural Studies. While a student, Ozlem built her own graphic design studio.
She has worked on a collaborative film project in Germany and, as an Accredited Correspondent of KPFK/Pacifica Radio USA, is considered one of their best reporters. It is said of her that “her grit and determination leads her to select tough topics few journalists in Turkey will touch.” She has made a film on Turkey’s Solitary Confinement F-Type prisons, interviewing prisoners and their families, designed an anti-war CD of short films, portrayed the lives of German exile composers in Turkey, and organized and filmed the “Cinema for Peace Enterprise”, screened in many cities.
Ozlem speaks of Turkey and “the advantages and disadvantages of a continually-shaking geography in politics and economy.” Once on the road to communicate to the world, she says “you never have the chance to stop once you have begun…you have almost everything to create.”