İstanbul, Türkiye
$500 - $3000 / Day
Murat is an Istanbul-based journalist and filmmaker. He has a BA from Yale University and an MS from Columbia Journalism School. As a CNN Turk reporter/producer, he made documentaries on the children of Southeastern Turkey, the Maidan uprising in Ukraine and the Turkish defense industry. Murat's first independent documentary was a 30-minute short called "The Waiting." The film is about the effects of incarceration on families left behind. After working at Rain Media for Frontline and Fareed Zakaria GPS at CNN’s New York bureau, he won a grant from Davis Projects for Peace to make a documentary in Southeastern Turkey. "A Report Card for Democracy" tells the story of a family destroyed by political polarization.
This is the trailer of a 30-minute documentary about how political polarization can destroy a family. Although political polarization is a global phenomenon, I have chosen to focus on a village in Southeastern Turkey and on the inter-family blood feud triggered by the recent referendum.
Tamer Center for Social Enterprise provides financial support for students who would like to have social impact. This documentary-style video promotes the Center's fellowship.
Produced for Columbia University
This is the trailer of a 30-minute documentary about the effects of incarceration on the ones left behind. "The Waiting" was my master's project at Columbia Journalism School.
Produced for Al-Monitor
In this long-form story that I wrote for Al-Monitor, the online magazine, you will meet the Yildiz Family whose members have killed each other due to a political split. The article features a family tree, an audio version and photos by me.
Produced for Al-Monitor
I wrote a deep-dive on Fethullah Gulen, an influential Turkish cleric who has been accused of orchestrating the 2016 coup attempt in Turkey. Al-Monitor published the article a few months before the attempted coup in four languages. Additionally, I provided the data for the interactive timeline on the same page.
Reza Zarrab is one of the biggest Iranian sanction evaders of all time. His case in the US has been ruining Turkish-American relations and I've been following it inside the federal courthouse for months. This is a wrap-up of the Reza Zarrab affair. I have also constructed an interactive 3D timeline:
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Miscellaneous
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Miscellaneous