Stories about the Ottoman world in the USA are released to the international public. The documentary film titled "Ottoman America", produced in collaboration with Bay Atlantic University, Bahçeşehir University Civilization Studies Center (MEDAM), and Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities, will be presented to the audience at the screenings in the USA this month.
The documentary film, which aims to objectively tell the stories of the Ottoman world in the USA to the international public, will shed light on the lost Ottoman America with personal stories consisting of 3 parts of 35 minutes each.
The documentary film that will re-evoke the forgotten world of Ottoman immigrants in the USA once again was shot in places like Massachusetts, Lowell, Lynn, Peabody, Lawrence, Boston, New York, Ellis Island, New Jersey Paterson, Wall Street, Michigan (Detroit), Virginia, Richmond, and Washington D.C
In addition to its general narration, actual shootings made in the field with the experts of the subject will ensure that the audience is both informed and part of the personal stories during the rediscovery of this lost time.
The goals of the film are to reveal the contributions of Turkish immigrants to both the USA and Turkey who came to the USA in the early 1900s, to provide a common platform for Turks, and to bring their contributions to the country to light.
The documentary film that was produced in collaboration with Bay Atlantic University, Bahçeşehir University Civilization Studies Center (MEDAM), and Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities also aims to provide a strong historical database to business people and politicians of Turkish origin, to contribute to tourism by promoting Anatolia, to bring a new perspective to the immigration debate in the country by positively changing the misperceptions about those who immigrated to the USA and to reinforce the belonging of the members of the Turkish community that lived in the USA for more than 100 years.
The documentary, which tells about the arrival points of immigrants in America and their lives in America, tells the human stories of the Ottoman people who started to contribute to American society, economy, and politics in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Mehmed Ali Efendi, an Imam who was assigned as an attache to Washington Embassy in 1919 by the Ottoman Government, who speaks 6 languages and has a mosque built in the area where the World Trade Center will be located in the future, is also among the names whose story is told.
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