Extrait d’un reportage de Sandrine Léonardelli et Patrick Méheut (production France Télévisions / Faut pas rêver)
“Depuis une dizaine d’années, les séries télé « made in Turquie » règnent en maîtres sur le petit écran. Avec un marché de 70 millions de téléspectateurs, leur production est devenue une véritable industrie dont Istanbul est la capitale. Exit les feuilletons brésiliens ou mexicains, les séries turques parlent aussi d’amour, de crimes ou de trahison. Leurs héros sont beaux, souvent riches et puissants et ils sont turcs ! Et c’est ça qui fait la différence ! Leader absolu de l’audience depuis un an, « Le siècle magnifique » raconte la vie de Soliman, le plus grand sultan de l’Empire ottoman, y compris sa vie privée… Un pari osé en Turquie ! “
“The neoliberal transformation that swept through the world economy during the 1980’s, and along with it the globalization process that picked up speed, brought with it a deep transformation in cities all over the world. For this new finance-centered economic structure, urban land became a tool for capital accumulation, which had deep effects on major cities of developing countries. In Istanbul, which already lacked a tradition of principled planning, the administrators of the city blindly adopted the neoliberal approach that put financial gain ahead of people’s needs; everyone fought to get a piece of the loot; and the result is a megashantytown of 15 million struggling with mesh of life-threatening problems.
Especially in the past 10 years, as the World Bank foresaw in its reports, Istanbul has been changing from an industrial city to a finance and service-centered city, competing with other world cities for investment. Making Istanbul attractive for investors requires not only the abolishment of legal controls that look out for the public good, but also a parallel transformation of the users of the city. This means that the working class who actually built the city as an industrial center no longer have a place in the new consumption-centered finance and service city. So what is planned for these people?
This is where the “urban renewal” projects come into play. Armed with new powers never before imagined, TOKI (State Housing Administration), together with the municipalities and private investors, are trying to reshape the urban landscape in this new vision. With international capital behind them, land plans in their hands, square meters and building coefficients in their minds, they are demolishing neighborhoods, and instead building skyscrapers, highways and shopping malls. But who do these new spaces serve?
The huge gap between the rich and the poor in Istanbul is reflected more and more in the urban landscape, and at the same time feeds on the spatial segregation. While the rich isolate themselves in gated communities, residences and plazas; new poverty cycles born in social housing communities on the prifery of the city designed as human depots continue to push millions to desperation and hopelessness. So who is responsible for this social legacy that we are leaving for future generations?
While billions of dollars are wasted on new road tunnels, junctions, and viaducts with a complete disregard for the scientific fact that all new roads eventually create their own traffic, Istanbul in 2010 has to contend with a single-line eight-station metro “system”. Due to insufficient budget allocations for mass public transportation, rail and other alternative transport systems, millions of people are tormented in traffic, and billions of dollars worth of time go out the exhaust pipe. What do our administrators do? You guessed right: more roads!
Everything changes so fast in this city of 15 million that it is impossible to even take a snap-shot for planning. Plans are outdated even as they are being made. A chronic case of planlessness. Meanwhile, the population keeps increasing and the city expands uncontrollably pushing up against Tekirdağ in the east and Kocaeli in the west. But does Istanbul really have a plan?
In 1980 the first plan for Istanbul on a metropolitan scale was produced. In that plan report, it is noted that the topography and the geographic nature of the city would only support a maximum population of 5 million. At the time, Istanbul had 3.5 million people living in it. Now we are 15 million, and in 15 years we will be 23 million. Almost 5 times the sustainable size. Today we bring water to Istanbul from as far away as Bolu, and suck-up the entire water in Thrace, destroying the natural environment there. The northern forest areas disappear at a rapid pace, and the project for a 3rd bridge over the Bosphorous is threatening the remaining forests and water reservoirs giving life to Istanbul. The bridges that connect the two continents are segregating our society through the urban land speculation that they trigger. So what are we, the people of Istanbul, doing against this pillage? If cities are a reflection of the society, what can we say about ourselves by looking at Istanbul? What kind of city are we leaving behind for future generations?
Ecological limits have been surpassed. Economic limits have been surpassed. Population limits have been surpassed. Social cohesion has been lost. Here is the picture of neoliberal urbanism: Ecumenopolis.
Ecumenopolis aims for a holistic approach to Istanbul, questioning not only the transformation, but the dynamics behind it as well. From demolished shantytowns to the tops of skyscrapers, from the depths of Marmaray to the alternative routes of the 3rd bridge, from real estate investors to urban opposition, the film will take us on a long journey in this city without limits. We will speak with experts, academics, writers, investors, city-dwellers, and community leaders; and we will take a look at the city on a macro level through animated maps and graphics. Perhaps you will rediscover the city that you live in and we hope that you will not sit back and watch this transformation but question it. In the end this is what democracy requires of us.”
“Scénariste et producteur exécutif de la série X-Files entre 1993 et 2002, Vince Gilligan est également co-scénariste du film Hancock avec Will Smith et depuis 2008 le créateur de Breaking Bad dont les trois premières saisons, ont remporté un succès critique exceptionnel et trois Emmy Awards consécutifs pour son acteur principal Bryan Cranston. Vince Gilligan revient sur sa carrière et sur les coulisses de fabrication de cette série unique par son alliage de noirceur et d’humour et sa réalisation hautement cinématographique.
Breaking Bad est diffusée aux Etats-Unis par AMC et en France par Orange cinéma séries puis par Arte.
Rencontre animée par Pierre Langlais”
Commentaire de Julien Paris : une interview (en anglais) passionnante pour connaître le parcours d’un scénariste de série aux Etats-Unis, lequel est passé à la fois par les grosses productions télé (X-files), ciné (le blockbuster Hancok) pour arriver aujourd’hui à produire Breaking Bad, une série parfois considérée par la critique comme très ambitieuse dans l’esthétique et surtout dans l’écriture.
“A cheval sur deux continents, ce grand pays majoritairement musulman a démarré des négociations d’adhésion avec l’UE en 2005. Une candidature qui continue de diviser les pays membres, mais la Turquie va “patiemment poursuivre sa route”, nous a dit le Premier ministre Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Le pays a notamment mené une réforme de ses prisons. Visite guidée dans cette émission. Découvrez aussi les séries télé turques qui font un carton au Moyent-Orient.”
Présentatrice-réalisatrice : Caroline de Camaret
Productrice : Magali Faure
Rédacteur en chef : Loïck Berrou
Reportages : Valérie Labonne
Images : Stéphane Bodenne
“David Harvey is a leading figure of the marxist critique of neoliberalism. During his last stay in France, in October 2010, he answered a few quick questions on his relationship to Paris, on the geography of the financial crisis and on utopia and social movements.”
La plupart des conférences données à la RSA sont disponibles en vidéo ou audio (toujours en anglais), soit directement sur le site de la RSA, soit en différé par podcast (ici, ou dans ITunes).
Cette vidéo a été postée le 26 juin 2010 sur le site de la RSA et illustre le propos de l’urbaniste et économiste marxiste David Harvey sur le capitalisme.
“For more than six centuries, the Ottoman Empire controlled Arab lands, leaving its imprint on art, language and food.
Today, Turkey is wielding influence once again in the Arab world — not militarily, but through its soap operas. More than a dozen Turkish soaps have aired on Arab television, offering an escape from the hard daily realities of life.”
