Robin Saban is the Founder/President of the International Student Film Festival Hollywood.
Mr. Saban began his career in the entertainment industry as a writer and director in Montreal, Canada. He wrote and directed several plays for live theatre while living in Montreal from 1992 to 1996. In Los Angeles since 1998, Mr. Saban worked in the entertainment industry as a film editor and project developer, and co-wrote the film script titled “29 Palms”.

Mr. Saban studied film and theater at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada (1991). In 1997, he studied digital film and video editing software “AVID” at Video Symphony in Burbank, California.

The International Student Film Festival Hollywood which Mr. Saban founded, offers student filmmakers from all over the world a unique opportunity to gain the recognition of film industry leaders, creating career development opportunities in their home countries as well as in the United States.

Website: www.isffhollywood.org

Berrin Yavuzer – Artist Statement

I am working with the uncontrolled expression and combination of internal imagery, abstractions freighted with feeling. I tend to paint medium to large canvases in primary acrylics.

It is a real challenge for me to use words about my work. Cultural influences of the eastern Mediterranean, clash of east and west, symbolic glyphs, tales of the Aegean diaspora, images of ancient myth, and Muslim constraint recur in my work – on the surface and just beneath it.

My feeling varies in reflection of inner struggles, typified by forceful expressions of color. There is the constant battle to bridge external reality and the unconscious. Sometimes there is an internal leap beyond the threshold to dream and fantasy, an unexplainable odyssey into childhood fear and fulfillment.

The woman at the canvas – child, daughter, woman, wife, mother, human, artist – reaches into darkness and finds colorful nightmare visions in her. The woman in me – extravert, unusual, pessimist, with a black and white window on life – needs to fight to bring to light these visions as the past and the darkness reach out for me. Yet my conscious aesthetic remains excitement and sensitivity.

I was born and raised in Turkey. I received my BA degree in film and television production from Marmara University in Istanbul where I worked as a film editor and painter for many years. I came to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2001. My goal is to become more widely known in the American art world.

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Emre Şahin is an experienced director, cinematographer, and editor who captured the coveted Panavision scholarship in 1999, where he trained with some of the world’s leading directors of photography.

While a student at Emerson College in Boston, Şahin’s short film “Fetish” was awarded two acclaimed Evvy Awards (Best Film, Best Editing).

Şahin has since directed and edited documentary and television shows for networks such as ABC, ABC Family, MTV, VH1, The History Channel, The Travel Channel, The Food Network, TLC, and The Discovery Channel. He is currently the director and creator of the new series “Cities of the Underworld” for the History Channel. Other recent TV directing credits include the 10 episode series “Beyond the Bull”.

His unique ability to connect with the characters in his productions has allowed for a truly genuine and intimate look into their lives. Şahin’s close attention to visual details have made for incredibly interesting, as well as entertaining television and film, whether it’s capturing the pace of a city in his shooting style or evoking the inner joys or tragedies of an individual.

His short, Çanta, is currently on the festival circuit and has been accepted into over 20 film festivals around the world, including the Palm Springs International Film Festival. Çanta has received numerous awards, including Best Cinematography at the Beverly Hills International Film Festival, the Audience Choice Award at the West Chester Film Festival, Best Short at the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, and was named the Best Film of 2005 in Turkuaz magazine. Şahin currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife, Sarah Wetherbee.

www.cantafilm.com