Mizgin Tabu / JINHA

ISTANBUL–Woman filmmakers are shooting a documentary on the life of Kurdish woman journalist DenizFırat, killed last August by Daesh shrapnel while reporting on the frontlines from the battle over the Maxmur refugee camp in the Kurdistan region of Iraq.

Women's film cooperativeFilmmor and women's news agency JINHA are collaborating on a documentary telling the life story of the journalist, set to come out in May, through the stories of women who knew her. The film's director, MelekÖzman, said making the film has been a process of getting to know the journalist, a hero for many women.

"It's made me so happy to get to know her," said Melek, "but I wish we could be in a world where Deniz would still be alive today—a world where women wouldn't be exposed to this kind of violence and war."

When Melek first heard about Deniz's death, it was a difficult time in her life, she says. She was spending most of her time in the house,watching the news about violence against women and war in the Middle East that seemed to get worse every day that summer.

"When they said to evacuate the Maxmur camp because of ISIS attacks, Deniz said, 'I'm going to stay here with my camera and get the footage,'" said Melek. "She was trying to take footage right from the front. That gave me a lot of strength. I was at a hopeless point in my life and Deniz saved me from that."

She says that was when she started talking with friends at JINHA about collaborating on a film. "After all, she was a media guerrilla, resisting with a camera in her hand, and she was there for all of us," Melek said.

The crew has been traveling to the sites of importance in Deniz's life—Maxmur, Kandil, Deniz's home.The intervieweesin the film are entirely women.

Although Deniz was from the easternmost part of Northern Kurdistan, in Van, and Melek is from Artvin, in the Black Sea region, Melek says meeting the women in Deniz's life has made her feel closer to the Kurdish journalist, in spite of the great differences in their life experiences.

"When I watched Deniz's footage from Maxmur, that feeling of difference went away completely. Deniz got together with some friends in a house in Maxmur and she sang this folk song, 'ÇiftJandarma,'" Melek related. "That's a folk song from Artvin and the first folk song I learned when I was a child. Deniz loved that song. This may be a simple example, but there are so many ways that we can overcome those differences and understand one another."

Melek and her crew have sat by mountain streams, recording their sounds. They've climbed the mountains Deniz loved. They've gathered recordings of Deniz' voice, interviews and her own reporting. In her time in Maxmur, Deniz helped produce the poor Maxmur refugee camp's only newspaper. The crew shot footage of the children who toured the camp distributing the paper with Deniz.

Melek says gaining access to these subjects and sites has been surprisingly easy; people are eager to talk about Deniz, who had a special rapport with people.

"But this documentary isn't a commemoration. It's a gift to Deniz from her friends," said Melek. "We're making a film that Deniz would want to watch.

Kurdish female singer MizgînTahir will be making the soundtrack for the film.

(fk/cm)