Çayan Demirel was born in Istanbul in 1977. After completing his degree at the Faculty of Economics, he started working in documentary film in the year 2000 with oral history projects. In 2006 he completed his documentary "38" about the Dersim events, and he established SURELA FILM PRODUCTION in 2008. In 2009 he won the "Best Documentary" award for his film "Prison Number 5: 1980-84" at the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, the Ankara Film Festival and SIYAD. His documentary entitled 'Dr. Sivan' (2013) is about the life of Dr. Sait Kirmizitoprak, a Kurdish intellectual who lived between 1935-1971 and who was the founder of the first leftist Kurdish guerilla movement. Çayan Demirel's documentaries have been shown at many international film festivals, universities and NGO's. "BAKUR" is the director's latest feature length documentary.
Montréal World Film Festival
