Director’s Approach: Urban Gardens

The Journey as a Shift in Perspective The long journey that began before the pandemic—stretching from Turkey through Georgia, Azerbaijan, Iran, India, and Nepal, only to return once more into the depths of India—was more than a mere geographical transition for me. This route positioned my gaze at the distance of a "witness"; it offered an aesthetic of alienation that allowed me to look at everything I knew from the outside. While navigating between the chaos of India and the silence of Nepal, I learned a striking truth:

“Collective production is not just a choice; it is the most human way to survive.”

Upon returning to Turkey, I looked at the city like a stranger. What I saw amidst the grey buildings, locked doors, and packaged foods was a profound disconnection. Yet, this alienation did not push me to escape the city; instead, it drove me to discover its potential.

The City as a Space for Potential Solutions I moved away from the common reflex of "migrating to the countryside" or seeking "distant organic farming" that usually comes to mind when ecology is mentioned. Motivated by my journey, I realized that the solution had to sprout from the very heart of the problem: the city itself. The city was no longer just a troubled texture to me; it had evolved into a "space of memory" that needed to be transformed.

Every seed I planted, starting from my own apartment garden, was essentially a protest embedded in concrete. When we began swapping seeds with my neighbors, we ceased to be just individuals and became part of a collective memory. The film aims to document how these individual efforts evolve into a defense of "urban rights," reclaiming what Lefebvre calls "the individual’s right to create their own center."

Cinematic Language and the Construction of Memory This documentary is not merely a nature film recording the growth of plants. It is an archive of resistance built through image and sound. My cinematic approach adopts an "activist camera"—an aesthetic that infiltrates the process rather than remaining an observer:

• The Details of Truth: I see the most honest moments of this documentary in the "mishaps" of daily life—like Ersin and Gökçe’s cat, Mışık, eating the corn seedlings—or the pure excitement of pulling our first terrace-grown carrots out of the soil with our own hands.

• The Aesthetics of Idle Spaces: From the 750-square-meter "Teras" (the rooftop garden of Akmerkez, one of Turkey’s first shopping malls) to simple pots on balconies, I record every "idle" square meter as the city’s new production oases.

Conclusion: Reimagining the Future City As David Harvey stated, the right to reshape ourselves and our cities is one of the most precious yet neglected human rights. "Urban Gardens" is the voice of those claiming this right. Through the language of communication we have built—via the documentary, promotional videos, and digital exhibitions—we do not just show what exists. With the call #myimaginedpublicspace, we invite the audience to join this search for truth and collective production.

We are not "exiles" trapped within grey walls; we are active subjects building our own future by touching the soil, healing the earth with compost, and harvesting the rain.