ABOUT OBA
An International Platform for Unheard Stories
OBA Film & Video Festival is an artist-led initiative of the Institute for Living Stories, conceived and developed by Sashar Zarif.
Inspired by the historical meaning of oba as a gathering place, OBA creates space for stories carried within music, dance, ritual, archives, and lived experience to emerge through film, dialogue, mentorship, and collaborative inquiry.
Bringing together artists, researchers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, digital creators, archivists, cultural practitioners, and communities, OBA fosters meaningful encounters across disciplines, generations, cultures, and geographic boundaries. Rather than simply presenting finished works, OBA encourages attentive listening, creative exchange, and the shared exploration of stories embedded within artistic practices, cultural traditions, and archival materials—transforming memory into a living source of creative inquiry and new artistic expression.
Organized by the Institute for Living Stories, OBA is envisioned as a rotating international platform developed through partnerships with academic institutions, cultural organizations, and local communities in different regions of the world. Each edition responds to its local context while remaining guided by the core principles and artistic vision of OBA.
An International Platform for Unheard Stories
OBA Film & Video Festival is an artist-led initiative of the Institute for Living Stories, conceived and developed by Sashar Zarif.
Inspired by the historical meaning of oba as a gathering place, OBA creates space for stories carried within music, dance, ritual, archives, and lived experience to emerge through film, dialogue, mentorship, and collaborative inquiry.
Bringing together artists, researchers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, digital creators, archivists, cultural practitioners, and communities, OBA fosters meaningful encounters across disciplines, generations, cultures, and geographic boundaries. Rather than simply presenting finished works, OBA encourages attentive listening, creative exchange, and the shared exploration of stories embedded within artistic practices, cultural traditions, and archival materials—transforming memory into a living source of creative inquiry and new artistic expression.
Organized by the Institute for Living Stories, OBA is envisioned as a rotating international platform developed through partnerships with academic institutions, cultural organizations, and local communities in different regions of the world. Each edition responds to its local context while remaining guided by the core principles and artistic vision of OBA.
THE OBA APPROACH
Unheard Stories
Stories often remain unheard not because they are absent, but because they remain embedded within music, dance, ritual, archives, memory, and lived experience. OBA explores these practices not simply as artistic expressions or historical records, but as living carriers of knowledge, memory, and story.
Listening as Creative Practice
Listening lies at the heart of OBA. It is an active process of approaching people, practices, archives, and communities with attention, curiosity, care, and time. Through listening, OBA creates conditions through which stories may reveal themselves, be explored, and find continuity.
Stories Within Practice
OBA is interested not only in artistic practices themselves, but also in the lives that carry them—including questions of transmission, memory, migration, continuity, change, and belonging. Story is understood not as something added to practice, but as something carried within it.
Experience OBA
- See
Film & Video Screenings
Selected film and video works explore unheard stories carried within music, dance, ritual, archives, and lived experience. Each screening invites audiences to discover new perspectives and opens space for reflection, dialogue, and exchange. - Gather
Presentations & Roundtables
Artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners come together through keynote presentations, conversations, and roundtables, creating a shared space for listening, dialogue, and collaborative inquiry across disciplines and lived experiences. - Explore
Masterclasses & Creative Exploration
Through masterclasses, workshops, demonstrations, and practice-based sessions, participants experience diverse artistic traditions, creative processes, and research approaches while engaging directly with music, dance, narrative, ritual, and living heritage. - Create
Story Laboratory
At the heart of OBA is the Story Laboratory, where participants from different artistic disciplines, cultural traditions, and research backgrounds work together in small interdisciplinary groups. Inspired by the ideas, practices, and encounters of the gathering, they collaboratively develop new creative responses to be shared during the closing event. - Reimagine
Living Heritage & Archives
OBA encourages participants to revisit photographs, recordings, family collections, oral histories, embodied memories, and cultural practices as living sources of creative inquiry. Through artistic practice, dialogue, and film, archival materials become catalysts for uncovering untold stories and transforming memory into new creative expression. - Continue...
Community & Collaboration
OBA is designed not as a single event but as the beginning of ongoing relationships. By bringing together artists, researchers, musicians, dancers, filmmakers, digital creators, archivists, cultural practitioners, students, and communities, OBA fosters future collaborations, artistic partnerships, research initiatives, and international networks that continue long after the gathering ends.
OBA Film & Video Festival 2026 - Pilot Edition
19–23 November 2026
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Türkiye
19–23 November 2026
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, Türkiye
1. THE GATHERING
The inaugural edition of OBA brings together artists, researchers, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, digital creators, archivists, cultural practitioners, and community knowledge holders to explore Unheard Stories: Music, Dance, Memory and Living Heritage Across the Turkic World.
Organized by the Institute for Living Stories, in partnership with the ICTMD Study Group on Music and Dance in the Turkic World, and hosted by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, the five-day gathering combines film and video screenings, dialogue, masterclasses, creative collaboration, and cultural exchange inspired by the Living Stories practice.
Organized by the Institute for Living Stories, in partnership with the ICTMD Study Group on Music and Dance in the Turkic World, and hosted by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, the five-day gathering combines film and video screenings, dialogue, masterclasses, creative collaboration, and cultural exchange inspired by the Living Stories practice.
2. THE FOCUS
OBA 2026 explores the relationships between music, dance, narrative, ritual, archives, and living heritage as interconnected forms of cultural knowledge. The pilot edition welcomes stories emerging from artistic practice, embodied knowledge, personal and community archives, oral histories, migration, memory, and cultural continuity across the Turkic world and its diasporas.
Rather than treating archives as records of the past, OBA approaches them as living sources through which new stories, meanings, and creative possibilities continue to emerge.
Rather than treating archives as records of the past, OBA approaches them as living sources through which new stories, meanings, and creative possibilities continue to emerge.
3. PARTICIPATION
OBA welcomes artists, filmmakers, musicians, dancers, digital creators, archivists, researchers, cultural practitioners, students, and community knowledge holders whose work engages with music, dance, narrative, ritual, archives, film, performance, and living heritage.
Participants may attend the gathering, submit film and video works, or take part in workshops, masterclasses, conversations, and the Story Laboratory.
Participants may attend the gathering, submit film and video works, or take part in workshops, masterclasses, conversations, and the Story Laboratory.
information
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
OBA values attentive listening, creative inquiry, ethical engagement, and meaningful collaboration. Participants are encouraged to approach stories, archives, cultural practices, and communities with respect, care, transparency, and appropriate consent.
Rather than competition or technical virtuosity alone, OBA recognizes works that demonstrate depth of attention, relationship to practice, cultural connection, and the capacity to open new conversations.
Rather than competition or technical virtuosity alone, OBA recognizes works that demonstrate depth of attention, relationship to practice, cultural connection, and the capacity to open new conversations.
FILM & VIDEO SUBMISSIONS
OBA welcomes original film and video works that engage with the festival theme and its broader areas of inquiry.
Categories
• Stories from Practice
• Stories from Archives
• Stories of Transmission
• Stories of Change
• Open Stories
Running Times
• 1–5 minutes
• 5–15 minutes
• 15–30 minutes
Categories
• Stories from Practice
• Stories from Archives
• Stories of Transmission
• Stories of Change
• Open Stories
Running Times
• 1–5 minutes
• 5–15 minutes
• 15–30 minutes
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Call for Participation Opens
6 July 2026
Information Webinar
20 July 2026 · 19:00 (Istanbul Time)
Submission Deadline
August 15 2026
Notification of Acceptance
3 September 2026
Final Programme Announced
15 October 2026
Festival Dates
19–23 November 2026
Working Languages
English
6 July 2026
Information Webinar
20 July 2026 · 19:00 (Istanbul Time)
Submission Deadline
August 15 2026
Notification of Acceptance
3 September 2026
Final Programme Announced
15 October 2026
Festival Dates
19–23 November 2026
Working Languages
English
HOST INSTITUTION
The 2026 pilot edition is hosted by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, located in Çanakkale, Türkiye.
OBA 2026 | Presented Through
An initiative of
Institute for Living Stories
Conceived and Developed by
Sashar Zarif
Academic Partner
ICTMD Study Group on Music and Dance in the Turkic World
Pilot Host
Faculty of Music and Performing Arts
Faculty of Communication
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Institute for Living Stories
Conceived and Developed by
Sashar Zarif
Academic Partner
ICTMD Study Group on Music and Dance in the Turkic World
Pilot Host
Faculty of Music and Performing Arts
Faculty of Communication
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University
The 2026 pilot edition of OBA is hosted by the Faculty of Music and Performing Arts at Çanakkale Onsekiz Mart University, Çanakkale, bringing together artists, researchers, and cultural practitioners in a dynamic environment for dialogue, creative inquiry, and collaboration.
Website: https://www.comu.edu.tr/
Website: https://www.comu.edu.tr/
CONTACT
Email
obafvf@gmail.com
obafvf@gmail.com
PARTNERS
If you are interested in becoming a partner or a sponsor, please feel free to write to us
