Postbellek

Speed, emotion, dream. Smoke and Rubber follows the drivers of Istanbul who dedicate it all to modified car culture. Beyond the noise, it traces how speed, sound, and the performance of masculinity define a way of living, from the garage to the streets. Based on ongoing research, this is a reflective portrait of a noisy world.

Queen Elizabeth I commissions a magnificent mechanical organ for Sultan Mehmed III, crafted by the famed Thomas Dallam. The organ, adorned with singing birds and celestial mechanisms, is shipped over six months of treacherous seas. Upon arrival, Dallam assembles it and personally plays the organ as the Sultan eagerly awaits. Yet, despite its grandeur, the organ’s story ends in tragedy. Postbellek's short documentary was produced with the guidance and narration of Emre Aracı, and it leverages artificial intelligence by Atıl Altaş.

We take a closer look at Istanbul’s cats, their history, and their place in civilization during a short tour of the Cihangir neighborhood with Gündüz Vassaf, the author of The Cat in Istanbul.

In an age where silence is complicity, Muslimgauze: Electronic Intifada resurrects the haunting pulse of Bryn Jones—the Manchester-born musician who devoted his entire life to the Palestinian struggle without ever setting foot in the Middle East. Through the voices of his publisher and best friend, Geert-Jan Hobijn, Turkish musician Ekin Fil, and Turkish author Şule Demirtaş, the film traces Jones’s obsessive solitude and commitment in the studio, where he crafted a sonic battlefield of noise, resistance, and distortion. Postbellek's short documentary Muslimgauze: Electronic Intifada unfolds where the political collides with the artistic—a visual translation of noise into awakening. Confronting the uneasy intersections of politics, art, and representation, it is not a eulogy but a provocation: a reminder that resistance can echo louder than words—and sometimes, from the most unexpected corners of the world.

The 21st-Century Cinema Index, an extensive research project on 21st-century film by Hasan Cem Çal, a writer whose work focuses on the evolution of the moving image, has been adapted into a video essay by Hazal Bayar, an academic known for her experimental short films. Written originally for Manifold, one of Turkey’s leading online platforms, the work serves as a unique gallery of foundational images and concepts of the past twenty-five years of cinema.