Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Communication Faculty PhD students Mert Yusuf Özlük and Ezgi Gedik represented EMU with two presentations and one short movie screening at the “Media and Violence” symposium organised by the Lefke European University (LEU). The symposium took place on 27-28th of October 2016. 6 sessions and 25 presentations were held during the event.
The movie “Hide and Seek” is drawing attention to child brides
“Hide and Seek” is a short film written by EMU PhD students Mert Yusuf Özlük and Engin Aluç, which aims to attract attention to the topic of child brides which is a significant social issue in Turkey. The film’ first screening took place at the EMU Center for Women’s Studies’ International Conference last year.
“Hide and Seek” was also screened at the “Media and Violence” symposium organised by LEU. The movie received full marks from the audience. After the screening of the film, the problems encountered whilst making the film were discussed as well as the issue of child brides.
Director of the movie, Mert Yusuf Özlük, stated that the existence of the children who are forced to get married with elderly people is proven by research results, expressing his opinion about the issue as follows: “It is a necessity to increase the number of public service announcements, short movies and other visual projects in order to raise awareness about this problem rather than just using statistics.”
EMU PhD Research Assistant and director of the movie Mert Yusuf Özlük shared the results of his research titled “Acceptance of Learned Helplessness: Sexual Abuse the ‘Child Brides’ Example”. In addition, EMU Communication Faculty PhD student Ezgi Gedik discussed the results of “The Effect of Violence in Television Series on Elementary School Students” research with the attendees.
New Movie “Our Home”
The movie crew created a new project named “Our home” and this time they are drawing attention to environmental disasters. The movie which is directed by Mert Yusuf Özlük and written by Engin Aluç was filmed with participation of EMU students and will be released very soon.
