Sami Mermer

Sami is a kurdish filmmaker from Turkey. In Grand Rapids, Michigan, he directed The Box of Lanzo (2006), a feature documentary about homeless poeple. The film traveled in many festivals as the Flint film festival in U.S and Human Rights Films Festival in Scotland. He also directed a short film called Sortie (2005), winner of campus arts short films competition. Sami was co-writer and assistant director of Ax (the land) (1999), winner of several prices and best film in Hamburg film festival (Germany, 2000).
Sami worked as a director of photography on several films, as Taxi Casablanca (2007), a documentary about the only woman who drives the white taxi in Casablanca Morocco, codirected by Hind Benchekroun and Mary Fowles and that was broadcasted on TV5. He also shot The concert of the voices of Bettina Ehrardt, a documentary on Kent Nagano. Sami was also an assistant cameraman of the D.O.P Philippe Lavalette on the movie Victoria (2007) directed by Anna Karina.

His latest documentary, Turtles do not die of old age (2011), was co-directed and co-produced with Hind Benchekroun. Il a remporté the Grand Prix at the 17th Festival International du Cinéma Méditerranéen de Tétouan in 2011. Moreover, it was presented at the Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal (RDIM), and was selected at the Dok Fest Munick.

 

Filmography

Callshop Istanbul (2016 / 89 min)
Turtles do not die of old age (2011 / 92 min)
The Box of Lanzo (2006 / 100 min)