documentary – droog

SEVA Documentary Screening

In Solidarity with the Survivors of the February 6 Earthquakes

On the third anniversary of the February 6 earthquakes in Turkey, we gather to keep memory alive and to strengthen solidarity amid the ongoing traces of destruction.

We invite you to a screening of Seva, a documentary that offers a thoughtful look at post-earthquake Antakya through the themes of uncertainty, absence, grief, regeneration, and healing.

Through the eyes of women, children, and young people, Seva reflects on how art, collective production, and solidarity become tools for rebuilding life and nurturing hope in the aftermath of devastation.

The screening is hosted by Droog Amsterdam in collaboration with SineKumpanya, and will be followed by a conversation with the film’s director, Nesime Karateke.

Documentary Language: Turkish with English subtitles.

Film Duration: 54 mins

Doors Open: 18:00

Film Start: 18:30

Film End: 19:20

Q&A with the director: 19:30

Support Students Affected by the Earthquake

Three years after the February 6 earthquakes in Turkey, many families are still facing the long-term consequences of displacement, loss, and economic hardship. Access to consistent, nutritious meals remains a challenge for children and young people in affected areas.

As part of this event, we are raising funds to support the meals of 144 students impacted by the earthquake.

Your contribution will directly help provide daily meals and ongoing support for students whose lives were disrupted by the disaster.

Every donation makes a tangible difference.

🔗 Donate here:
https://supp.to/support-the-meals-of-144-students-affected-by-the-earthquake-28/donate

Thank you for standing in solidarity and contributing to long-term recovery.

Souls of Zen: A Shared Ritual

Droog presents an immersive afternoon bringing together ritual food experience and ethnographic cinema.

At the center of the gathering is a screening of Souls of Zen, accompanied by a live sushi-making ritual and shared tasting experience by ASA Vegan Sushi.

Guests are invited not only to watch and eat, but to observe allowing food, gesture, sound, and image to unfold together in time. This event is a joint project by culinary artist Asako Kato (ASA Vegan Sushi) and film curator Alya Yumrukçal (Droog).

The ritual of making and eating
The sushi is prepared live as part of the shared experience. Guests are invited to enter the world of the film slowly and to engage with the food attentively during the screening.

Each guest receives four pieces of vegan sushi:
• Three pieces of Asako’s signature sushi
• One mini onigiri

These are enjoyed during the screening, creating a shared moment that reflects Zen not as a formal religious practice, but as a lived philosophy present in everyday gestures, intention, and attention.

About ASA Vegan Sushi
Through ASA Vegan Sushi, Asako Kato explores sushi not only as food, but as an embodiment of Japanese philosophy — living in harmony with nature and seeking the intrinsic beauty of each element.

The film: Souls of Zen
Souls of Zen (2011) Buddhism, Ancestors, and the 2011 Tsunami in Japan is a documentary based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the aftermath of the 3/11 disasters. Filmed by Tim Graf and Jakob Montrasio, the film follows Buddhist clergy and communities as they navigate ritual, mourning, and collective recovery in the wake of catastrophe.

Information
Date: 21 March
Time: 3:00 PM

Ticket price includes four pieces of vegan sushi.
Drinks will be available for purchase, including tea and low-alcohol pairing options.

‼️Tickets close Wednesday at 00:00 midnight, so make sure to reserve on time‼️

Capacity is limited to preserve the intimacy of the experience.

Photo credits: Elmer Driessen, An De Smedt

Collective Compass: Mapping Shared Path in and beyond the Zoekjaar

Collective Compass is an one-day public event that invite audiences and artists who are based in the Netherlands, particularly those navigating the zoekjaar (search year), to engage in workshops, talks, and screening that merge artistic research with practical strategies. Taking place at Droog The Red Space, it fosters collective learning and solidarity while giving visibility to diasporic artistic practices.

The program begins at 11:00 am with two talks focusing on funding opportunities and strategies for surviving the Artist Zoekjaar.
After a one-hour break, a workshop hosted by SiSi Zhang will take place, dedicated to the collective navigation of the Zoekjaar. Participants will gather around a “Map of the Zoekjaar” to discuss both practical and emotional challenges, as well as strategies for navigating the search year.

Later in the program, a reading performance by Fileona Dkhar and a 1.5hr screening by Biyi Zhu will be presented, offering reflections on and documentation of the year, followed by a short Q&A session.

This project provides a space for diasporic artists and researchers to share knowledge, tools, and artistic strategies, fostering collective problem-solving and mutual support. Participants will gain confidence and resilience in navigating the zoekjaar, while the workshop’s outputs, tools, strategies, and documentation will be shared with a wider community.

PROGRAM

Doors Open: 10:30

Start of the event: 11:00

Talks: 11am – 12pm

Workshop: 1pm – 3:30pm

Performance & Screening: 4pm – 6pm

Zoekjaar Kit includes both Talks and Workshop combination ticket.

Who am I? #1 Luci (2024)

Suriname and the Netherlands share a long and complex past, yet the stories, voices, and cultural contributions of Surinamese people have not been celebrated enough within mainstream narratives. By learning about Surinamese culture, we not only honor a vibrant heritage but also confront the legacies of colonialism that continue to shape both societies today. For this reason, we felt it was only fitting to begin our first edition with a focus on Surinamese identity to reflect on how histories live on in the present.

In this first edition of our cultural screening series Who am I?, we will start our program with the film Luci (2024) directed by Mathieu Wijdeven and Mateo Vega accompanied with a warm Surinamese food service and Q&A after. Luci is a short archive documentary (40 min) about the memory and legacy of the great-great-grandfather of performer and co-director Mathieu Wijdeven: the Surinamese artist G.G.T. Rustwijk (1862-1914), also known by his pseudonym Luci.

Rustwijk lived in Suriname shortly after slavery as a theater maker and performer, multidisciplinary artist, as a man of color and as an early critic of the Dutch colonial regime – before he finally fell into oblivion. This archival documentary investigates the ‘light’ of Rustwijk and what has remained of it in today’s Suriname on the basis of performance, interviews, archival material and historical locations. Luci was selected for a Gouden Kalf (debut competition) in the Netherlands Film Festival.

Following the screening, we will host a Q&A with co-director and performer Mathieu Wijdeven, Rustwijk’s descendant inviting reflections on identity, cultural inheritance, and the emotional complexities of returning to one’s roots.

To complement the screening, we invite guests to join us before the event for a warmly prepared vegetarian Surinamese roti roll which you can take with you to the screening. Rooted in tradition and rich with flavor, the meal offers a moment to share a communal experience. By pairing cinema with cuisine, this program aims to create a multi-sensory experience that connects storytelling to taste, history to present, and individual memory to collective culture.

The film will be in Dutch language with English subtitles.

Program:

Wednesday 14 may 2025

18:30 – 19:30 Food Service & Drinks

19:30 – 19:40 Welcome & Introduction

19:40 – 20:20 Film Screening: Luci

20:20 – 21:00 Q&A

About the Who am I? Series:

Who am I? is a monthly curated film and cultural program that explores the layered and evolving experience of cultural identity. Curated by Alya Yumrukçal, a film and documentary programmer deeply interested in questions of belonging, this series invites audiences to reflect on where they come from, what they carry with them, and how identity is formed across time, space, and memory.

Through building a film program that explores global identities from a transnational perspective I aim to bring both national and international communities together to feel belonged and welcomed despite their physical distances from their original cultures and countries. I aim to create a dialogue between understanding our families, friends, neighbours, through connecting and thinking critically about the way our cultures shape who we are.