About Girls of Hope

In Turkey far too many women are still unable to read and write, and all they see in their life span is being forced into early marriage and relegation to the home, where they look after extended families and more children than they can feed. The girls are portrayed in their homes, together with the strongest supporters of their emancipation through education: their mothers.

Girls of Hope portrays five girls who struggle for their education and, despite all the difficulties, try to hold on to their hope for a better future.

Audio: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: 4:3
Run Time: 65 minutes
Languages: Turkish & Kurdish
Subtitles: English

To purchase the DVD, to organise a screening or for any other question contact us directly.

Aysegul Selenga Taskent

Aysegul Selenga Taskent

Documentary Director

Born in Ankara, Turkey, Aysegul Selenga Taskent earned her BA degree in American Literature. Her passion and interest for art and cinema started at an early age and after college pushed her to pursue filmmaking abroad. She received an MA degree in Media Studies in England. In 2007, with a full scholarship, she earned an MFA degree in Media Arts Production at SUNY, Buffalo, USA. Her first documentary Volga, Volga: Living with Schizophrenia (2008) was screened at international festivals and won the Jury Prize in the 19th Ankara International Film Festival.

Her second documentary Girls of Hope (2012) received the 2012 Rome Independent Film Festival Honorable Mention Award. In her works, Aysegul Selenga’s art focuses on social issues, human rights, love and peace. Through her work, she hopes to contribute to make the world a better place.

   

Delizia Flaccavento

Delizia Flaccavento

Producer & Documentary Photographer

Delizia Flaccavento is a documentary photographer and photojournalist whose work focuses on social issues and ethnic minorities. After graduating in Philosophy in her native Italy, Delizia studied Photojournalism in England, where she attended the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) Press Photography program, and in the USA, where she earned a Master’s Degree from the School of Visual Communication, Scripps College of Communication, at Ohio University. Delizia’s projects have been published and exhibited internationally. Her work on ethnic minorities includes projects on the Italian Americans, on the Italian Australians and on the Meskhetian Turks. In Turkey, among other things, she has documented the Iraqi refugees stranded in Istanbul, the refugees trying to reach the Greek islands from the Turkish coasts, the Istanbul Leprosy Hospital and the growth of disabled sport.