• 2014 Chronicle of a Revolt - One Year Istanbul, doc (script, director, editor, producer) 83', 57'
  • 2013 Dancing Alone, doc (script, director, editor) 98'
  • 2010 The Tear, fiction (script, director, editor) 09"
  • 2009 The Deviation, fiction (script, director, editor) 05"
  • 2008 The Red One & Zora, fiction, (script, director) 14"
  • 2006 Knots in the carpet, fiction (script, director) 16"
  • 2005 Dancing Alone, doc (script, director, editor) 15"
  • 2005 Live long, fiction (script, director) 15‘‘

Chronicle of a Revolt - One Year Istanbul participated at the follwoing fetsivals:
2015 20th Festival do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (worldpremier)

Dancing Alone
participated at the following Festivals:
2015 12th Cronograf Chisinau, Moldavia, best international documentary - won
2014 07th Izmir Ege Üniversitesi Documentary Festival, Turkey
2014 17th Ucan Süpürge Women Festival Ankara, Turkey
2014 06th Ankara TRT Documentary Festival, Turkey
2014 25th I'nat. Filmfestival Ankara, Turkey
2014 16th Eskisehir Filmfestival, Turkey
2014 Horea Bernea Studio, Bukarest, Rumania
2014 13th !F Istanbul Independent Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey
2013 05th Hangi Insan Haklari, Istanbul/Turkey
2013 04th Hangi Insan Haklari, Izmir/Turkey
2013 10th Filmz – Festival des deutschen Kinos, Mainz, Germany
2013 20th Astra Filmfestival Sibiu/Rumania, bester international documentary - won
2013 02nd Duhok Filmfestival/Irak
2013 50th Filmfestival in Antalya, Turkey, best documentary - won
2013 06th Documentarist, Istanbul, Turkey (Turkeypremier)
2013 20th Dok.fest München, German competition - special mention
2013 13th Docaviv, Tel Aviv/Israel (international premier)
2013 09th Achtung Berlin - new berlin film award, best documentary - won
2013 10th Dokumentarfilmwoche Hamburg
2013 34th Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis Saarbrücken, Germany
2012 55th DOK Leipzig (worldpremier), German competition, Germany

The Tear
 
participated at the following festivals:
2010 31st Max – Ophüls – Preis, Saarbrücken (worldpremier)
2010 I'nat. Filmfest Dresden, Germany
2010 I'nat. Cinema Jove International Film Festival, Valencia, Spain
2010 Open Air Film Festival Weiterstadt, Germany
2010 10th Shortmoves – 10th International Film Festival, Halle, Germany
2010 Reykjavik International Filmfestival, Iceland 

The  Red One & Zora
participated at the following festivals:
I'nat. Ankara Festival, Turkey
I'nat. Filmfestival Krakow, Poland
40th I'nat. Worldfest Houston, Texas, USA, platinum Student award - won
66th I'nat. Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica, Italy
I'nat. Strasbourg, France

  • 2010 Saatchi & Saatchi, New Directors Showcase for The Tear
  • 2010 Prädikat Besonders Wertvoll for The Tear
  • 2013 50th Filmfestival in Antalya, Turkey, best documentary for Dancing Alone - won
  • 2013 09th Achtung Berlin - new berlin film award, best documentary for Dancing Alone - won
  • 2013 20th Astra Filmfestival Sibiu, Romania, best international documentary for Dancing Alone - won
  • 2013 20th Dok.fest München, Section German documentary for Dancing Alone - special mention
  • 2015 12th Cronograf Chisinau, Moldavian, best international documentary for Dancing Alone - won
Dancing Alone:
  • 2012 HFF Babelsberg Montageforum
  • 2012 Wilhelm das war nix, Wilhelmspalais Stuttgart
  • 2013 100. Bremen Heimspiel
  • 2013 Freiluftkino Friedrichshain Berlin
  • 2013 Tüpisch Türkisch, Köln
  • 2013 Peter kommt auch, Berlin
  • 2014 ODAG psychologists conference to the theme „Dreams of traumatised children“ Izmir, Turkey 

Biography

1977 Biene Pilavcı has born and grown up near Stuttgart. Biene's varied early career includes completing an apprenticeship as a painter and decorator, gaining a diploma in marketing and retail business for interior decorators as well as co-founding independent, grass-roots socio-cultural centre Escanda in Asturias while living in Spain for a year, before embarking on her dream and taking up film direction studies at Berlin's prestigious Deutsche Film und Fernsehakademie (DFFB).

Biene completes several shorts while studying at dffb, making the acclaimed RISS (THE TEAR) with actors Klaas Heufer-Umlauf and Aylin Tezel. She closes her course in 2012, finishing with a documentary on the power of family cohesion, ALLEINE TANZEN / DANCING ALONE, which sparked off a huge debate in Turkey on domestic violence.

Against the background of the 2013/14 Gezi protests in Istanbul, Biene makes CHRONIK EINER REVOLTE - EIN JAHR ISTANBUL / CHRONICLE OF A REVOLT – ONE YEAR ISTANBUL which is co-directed. The documentary is her second full-length film asking searching questions about what true democracy might be. The film was transmitted on European broadcaster arte TV and featured on the Das Kleine Fernsehspiel slot on German public service channel ZDF, in two different-length edits.

Most recently, Biene has co-curated several film series. Among them the new additional program in the Berlinale Forum FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG.
Currently, Biene is working on several projects and formats in various stages. 

Biene is co-founder of the film political initiative Nichtmeintatort, the political film network Neue deutsche Filmemacher*innen and has been a 2020/'21 fellow of the Berlin Senate for Arts and Europe. She is currently a fellow at the Tarabya Cultural Academy in Istanbul, funded by the German Foreign Office and curated by the Goethe-Institut.

Skills

As a filmmaker, Biene has an ability to capture the moment, whether it be working in the medium of documentary or fiction. This has allowed her films to reach a wide audience. As a director Biene trusts her actors and protagonists, as a writer she trusts her characters. It is the story that dictates the creative approach for any given project.
Biene offers production services, applying her strengths as a great communicator and organiser. Biene also works as a script consultant, offering dramaturgic advice, as well as an editor, and a German-Turkish translator. She is proficient in Avid media composer, Final cut pro and the subtitling program Annotation Edit.
A selction of her references are
KACIS (ESCAPE) by Kenan Kavut (translating/subtitling)
SIVAS by Kaan Müjdeci (editor)
ARAF - SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN by Yeşim Ustaoğlu (German dialogue script)
TOBACCO GIRL by Biljana Garvanlieva (translating/subtitling)
TIME OF HAZELNUTS by Hakan Savaş Mican (translating/subtitling)
THE RASPBERRY EMPIRE by Andres Veiel (spotting/subtitling)

News

On Tuesday, December 12th and Wednesday, December 13th, 2023, Biene will speak at the Cinepoetics workshop of the FU Berlin about archival work in film and her co-curation Fiktionsbescheinigung.

From Thursday, 17 to Sunday, November 26, 2023, Bienes' film from 2015 CHRONIK EINER REVOLTE - EIN JAHR ISTANBUL will be shown as part of the curation WAS ANDERES MACHEN (THE HOME AND THE MOVIE) by Merle Kröger (Pong Film), Tina Ellerkamp (Silent Green) and Kathrin Brinkmann (ZDF/ARTE) in and by SILENT GREEN. The curation is a project is a project of silent green Film Feld Forschung gGmbH in cooperation with the Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art and Film Studies/Media Dramaturgy at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. With the kind support of the ZDF editorial department Das Kleine Fernsehspiel. Supported by the Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin. Supported by the Hauptstadtkulturfonds.

On Tuesday, 14.11.2023 at approx. 2 pm, Biene will speak at a symposium organized by Bildungswerk Berlin on the panel Art, Knowledge, Resistance - Critical Perspectives on Power Relations in the Context of Art and Education. The event will take place at Spore Haus, Hermannstr. 86, 12051 Berlin from 9:30 am to 4 pm. The organizer is the Heinrich Böll Foundation. The conference can also be attended in hybrid form. Please register in advance free of charge.

On Friday, Sept. 13, 2023 at approximately 6 p.m., Biene will speak at Kino Arsenal about her project NAKED, for which she received a grant from the Berlin Senate's 2021/'22 Female Artists Program. Ticket reservation not necessary.

On Friday, Sept. 15, 2023, Biene opens her co-curation Fiktionsbescheinigung Special at Sinema Transtopia in cooperation with Berlinale Forum/Arsenal. GÖLGE by Sema Poyraz and Sofoklis Adamidis (1980) will mark the start of a longer series. Sema Poyraz will be on hand to answer questions for the Q&A following the screening, which will include a restored print of the film.
Other screenings and Q&A's with Biene will be MY FATHER, THE GUEST WORKER (1995) by Yüksel Yavuz and IN THE DESERT (1987) by Rafael Fuster Pardo on Saturday, Sept. 23, 2023.

From June 15 - July 23, 2023, Biene's co-curation with Enoka Ayemba GRENZEN IN DER MITTE - Migration and its Perspectives in German Film will run. Over three weekends, Biene will present the series in Nuremberg at the Filmhaus there as well as at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. Click here for the curatorial notes.

Biene is a scholarship holder at the Istanbul Tarabya Cultural Academy 23/24.

On 28.05.2023 at 10:30 am the roundtable NEW PERSPECTIVES ON TURKISH GERMAN CINEMA (AFFECTIVE SOCIETIES) with Biene will take place. Organizer is the Freie Universität of Berlin (FU). The roundtable will take place at Sinema Transtopia, Lindower Str. 20/22, Haus C in Berlin/Wedding. Biene's discussion partners will be Ömer Alkın, Ahmet Gürata, Nazlı Kilerci-Stevanović and Can Sungu. 

On April 27, 2023, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., Biene's film CHRONICLE OF A REVOLT - ONE YEAR ISTANBUL will be shown to the public at Basel University's Institute for Middle East Studies on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the Gezi Park protests as well as the approaching parliamentary elections in Turkey. Admission is free. Afterwards, there will be an in-person Q&A with Biene.

On 11.04. and 12.04.2023 at 9:30 am on each day, Biene will give the keynote THE MANY DIMENSIONS OF DIVERSITY in English at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg together with colleague Sun-ju Choi. As well as giving the workshop IST DAS DIVERSITÄT OR KANN DAS WEG? in German to students. Both events are compulsory events at the start of the semester for all academic years and trades. The workshop is only compulsory for undergraduates. Guest auditors for the keynote are welcome.

On 16.9.2022 at 6 pm Biene moderates the panel BETWEEN TWO COUNTRIES - Making Films in Turkey and Germany in the framework of the 1st Turkish Film Festival Berlin at FMP1, Franz-Mehring-Platz1, 10243 Berlin with the participating filmmakers Cem Kaya, Asli Özge and Tuna Kaptan. Admission free, language German.

On 14.09.2022 at 6 pm, Alleine Tanzen by Biene will be shown at the Neuköllner Wolf Kino. There will be a Q&A afterwards. Tickets are also available for purchase online. A stream via Sooner will also be offered the day after.

Biene is part of the board of trustees of the newly initiated film series Docs on tour. The project, together with the partner organizations docfilm42 e.V. (Berlin), Erich-Zeigner-Haus e.V. (Leipzig) and filmokratie (Berlin) to educational institutions working in the field of social discourse in urban and especially rural areas. In three documentary film series, an accompanying program is developed and sent on tour. The series is among others sponsored by Neustart Kultur.

Biene's introduction to the Berlinale Forum's additional program FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG - Cinematic Perspectives on Germany, which she co-curated, will be released on Goethe-on-demand-platform on April 20, 2022. Those who would like to see the approximately half-hour video in advance can do so by clicking here. The introduction is a commissioned work of Goethe-Institut.

On June 3 and 5, 2022, at 17:30 and at 19:30 respectively, Biene will be a festival guest at the 38th International Short Film Festival Hamburg. Together with the curator of the program ARCHIV DER GEGENWART, Tobias Hering and her colleague Enoka Ayemba she will talk about Black and (post)migrant German film heritage.

On May 19, 2022, Biene will participate in the Federal Conference of the Young Islam Conference as a panel guest on the topic WHAT CAN ART? Among others, Max Czollek will be there. The panel will take place at Refugio Berlin, Lenaustr. 3.

On May 11, 2022 at 5 p.m., Biene will speak about "Classism in the Film Industry" at the Stadthaus Frankfurt a.M. as part of Lichterfilmfest Frankfurt. The panel is organized by HessenFilm.

On May 8, 2022, among other things, Biene will speak at the 37th Dokfest Munich as a panel guest for the film network New German Filmmakers, which she co-founded, on DIVERSITY IN DOCUMENTARY FILM! BUT HOW? The event will take place at HFF Kino 1 from 2 - 4 pm.

Biene's introduction to the Berlinale Forum's additional program FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG - Cinematic Perspectives on Germany, which she co-curated, is now published on the Gothe-on-demand platform. However, due to geo-blocking, the platform is only accessible outside of German-speaking countries. The forty minutes video with english subtitles can be viewed here. The introduction is a commissioned work of the Goethe-Institut. (Note: The individual videos are usually placed separately in front of the respective film(s). For pragmatic reasons they are mounted together under the link).

On December 7, 2021, Biene will participate as a guest in the discursive film series of the Goethe Institute in Ankara in the context of the 60th anniversary of the Anwerbeabkommen (recruitment agreement) between Germany and Turkey. She will present Sema Poyraz's film GÖLGE (1980) and give a lecture on current cinematic positions, focusing in particular on the question of whether a German-Turkish cinema has long since become obsolete.

On 06.12.2021 at 4 pm Bee will speak at Moviemento cinema as part of the Ake Dikhea? Festival of Romani Film as a panel guest on "Perspectives about Decolonising Film and TV" with Galya Stoynova, Ben Chimoy and Djamila Grandits (moderator).

On Nov. 2, 2021 at 6 p.m. CET, Biene will speak with the Goethe Institute Moscow about "women in the film industry in Germany and Russia". Open podcast recording "Pokaligarim" on youtube

Fiktionsbescheinigung of Berlinale Forum goes into the second round with Enoka Ayemba and Biene! The other curators, Karina Griffith and Can Sungu, will continue their work next year on a rotating basis.

Biene is part of the jury of the students' competition on the occasion of 60 years of Anwerberabkommen, organized by the Landesintegrationsrat NRW and represented by Tayfun Keltek. 

Together with co-curator Enoka Ayemba, Biene talked to BR's cultural magazine PUZZLE about FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG

On 18.08.2021 the following article by Till Kadritzke on Fiktionsbescheinigung appears in the Tagesspiegel.

On 11.06.2021 the following article by Anke Leweke on Fiktionsbescheinigung appears in Die Zeit.

On 10.06.2021 the following article by Silvia Hallensleben on Fiktionsbescheinigung will be published in Freitag.

On 09.06.2021 the following article by Fabian Tietke on Fiktionsbescheinigung appears in Tageszeitung (taz).

On 09.06. 2021 the following article by Till Kadritzke on Fiktionsbescheinigung appears in the critic.

On 09.06.2021 filmmaker Rahim Shirmahd talks about his film 18 Minuten Zivilcourage, which is part of Fiktionsbescheinigung, with Deutschlandfunk.

Biene's short film RISS (2010) will screen in this year's additional program FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG of the Berlinale Forum. Furthermore, Biene will give a lecture on FILM ALS SELBSTEBSTIMMUNG in the discursive part of the program.

Biene curated the additional program of this year's Berlinale Forum FIKTIONSBESCHEINIGUNG together with four other curators under the direction of Cristina Nord. "Fiction Certification. 16 cinematic perspectives on Germany" asks: Who finds entry into German cultural history, cinema and the film canon, and who stays out? Who determines what is played?

On the occasion of the open letter to ARTE initiated by Pary El-Qalqili and Biene, the two, together with ProQuote Film founder, filmmaker, professor and activist Tatjana Turanskjy, were interviewed by Kathrin Peters and Katharina Lüdin of critical diversity blog at the Universität der Künste about cinema, its funding and financing system and the German crimefetish.

Biene receives the scholarship of the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe in the field of film and video.

December 2020 Biene co-founded the film network Neue deutsche Filmemacher*innen.

On Wednesday, 20.01.2021 Biene will give an online lecture on FILM AS EMPOWERMENT based on DANCING ALONE at the Hochschule für Gestaltung (hfG) in Offenbach on Homo Sapiens series by Prof. Tatjana Turanskyj.

On 12/3/2020, the following article by Markus Weber on the open letter to Arte appears in WuV magazine.

On 11/27/2020 the following article by Axel Weidemann on the open letter to Arte appears in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ).

On 26.11.2020 the following article by Xenia Balzereit on the open letter to Arte appears in the Tageszeitung (TAZ)

On 11/24/2020 the following article by Aurelie von Blazekovic on the open letter to Arte appears in the Süddeutsche Zeitung

On 11.11.2020 the following article by Daniel Kothenschulte on the open letter to Arte appears in the Frankfurter Rundschau.

On 11/19/2020 the following article on the open letter to Arte appears in Blickpunkt Film.

On 11/17/2020 the following article by Tomasz Kurianowicz on the open letter to Arte appears in the Berliner Zeitung.

On 11/17/2020 Biene sends together with Pary El-Qalqili an open letter to the culture channel ARTE. In it, they criticize its sexist and exploitative call for submissions "Indescribably Female." The letter has been signed by over 800 filmmakers and nearly 30 film associations and the like. To Artes statement follow the link here

Biene is a jury member of this year's scholarship program of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) in the field of film. These are the scholarship holders 2020/21 and further jury members.

On Wednesday, 15.07.2020 the film political initiative and blog Nichtmeintatort was founded by Biene and her partner in crime Pary El-Qalqili.

On Wednesday, 17.06.2020 ALLEINE TANZEN will be shown at the University of Weimar at the Film Institute there under the lecturer Nicola Hens. Afterwards there will be a Q&A with Biene.

On Friday, 29.05,2020 ALLEINE TANZEN will be shown at the University of Vienna at the Ethnological Institute on "Problematisierungen des Selbst: One's Everyday Life in Audio-Visual Media" by the filming self and the filmed self, will be screened. Afterwards there will be a Q&A with Biene and the students under the seminar direction of Isil Karatas and Alexa Färber.

A recent interview as part of the #shareyourpower ProQuote film campaign with board member and filmmaker Tatjana Turansky is here.

On Monday, Feb. 24, 2020 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Akademie der Künste, Pariser Platz 4, 10117 Berlin, Biene will be a panel guest as part of the 70. Berlinale at the traditional ProQuote Film panel event on intersectional perspectives with Lara-Sophie Milagro (actress & writer), Pary El Qalqili (director & writer), Mateja Meded (actress), Barbara Fickert (managing director Kinoblindgänger) and Branwen Okpako (filmmaker, professor of Cinema & Digital Media). The event will be moderated by Borjana Gaković (curator & media policy spokesperson of the Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit e.V.) and Sandra Polly Polchow (director of the Berlin Lesbian Non-Binary Filmfest). This event is curated by PQF board members, directors and writers Tatjana Turanskyj and Barbara Teufel.

On Tuesday, 04.30.2019 at 7pm and on Saturday, 05/11/2019 at 2pm Turkish time, ALLEINE DANCING will be screened in English/Turkish as part of the tracing-the-memory exhibition at the Pera Museum Istanbul. Info and tickets here: peramuseum.org/Dancing-Alone.

On Thursday, 11.4.2019 from 4 - 6 pm at Kino Babylon Mitte, Rosa-Luxemburg Str. 30, Biene is together with Thelma Buabeng, Zara Zandieh, Pary El-Qalqili under the moderation of Canan Turan as a panel guest at Achtung Berlin - the new berlin film award on the topic of Women* Of Color and the German Cinema funded by Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Together with experimental filmmaker Johanna Sunder-Plassmann and cinematographer Andrzej Krol, Biene forms 2018 the jury for film grants from Filmstart Bremen and nordmedia by Filmbüro Bremen.

Together with filmmakers Annekatrin Hendel, Florian Schewe and Michael Kockot, Biene forms this year's documentary jury short and long at the 47th i'nat Sehsüchte Film Festival in Potsdam.

Bienes Series MACHT DER LAKAIEN receives Prosiebensat1 Exposé Award 2017.

Biene is currently working on a fictional sex&crime mini series with the working title MACHT DER LAKAIEN / THE LACKEY'S POWER. Based on a true event, the story concerns the metamorphosis of a German-Turkish journalist and reluctant escort, as she penetrates the highest echelons of global business. Therefore Birnur just got the funding commitment for the exposé by the German private TV channel Prosiebensat1 and the screenwriters association VDD.

In November 2016 CHRONICLE OF A REVOLT - ONE YEAR ISTANBUL will be shown within the "Campaigning for Nonviolent Change"-Training in "KURVE Wustrow - Center for Training and Networking for Nonviolent Action" as case study for peacefull protest. The participants are coming from Nepal, Myanmar, Southsudan, Palastine, Ukraine, the Balkan and Germany.

Contact:
phone +49 30 41 95 76 32
mobile +49 157 88 42 14 34
info@parcours-pictures.com