In Memoriam | Sami Şekeroğlu (1937-2024)

In Memoriam Sami Şekeroğlu (1937-2024)

Born in Elazığ in 1937. Sami Şekeroğlu graduated from the Istanbul State Academy of Fine Arts, Department of Advanced Painting. In 1962, he founded "Kulüp Sinema 7", Turkey's first cinema-culture organization. In 1967, he changed the name of Kulüp Sinema 7 to "Türk Film Arşivi". In 1969, he transferred the "Türk Film Archive" he founded, along with all its assets, to the Academy without consideration and became the founder of the "State Academy of Fine Arts Film Archive". The institution became a member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) in 1967 and was accepted as an authorized and full member in 1973.

In 1970, he was officially appointed as the Director of the "State Academy of Fine Arts Film Archive". In 1974, he started the first cinema training. In order to establish a Science-Art-Culture Institution that would work in the field of Cinema-TV, he conducted research and examinations in the relevant centers of Europe, and in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Hollywood in the USA, in film schools, film centers, studios, and archives. In 1975, he transformed the DGSA Film Archive into a world-class, modern technology, research-study Science-Art-Culture Institution and changed its name to the "Cinema-TV Institute". From that date on, he continued his work as the Director of the Cinema-TV Institute.

He initiated the first formal cinema-television education in our country at the academic level at the Cinema-TV Institute. He became an Associate Professor in 1985 and a Professor in 1987. He served as the Vice Rector of Mimar Sinan University between 1988 and 1996, and as the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts at MSÜ between 1996 and 1999. He established the first Cinema Museum within the MSÜ Cinema-TV Center.

In 1985, he received the Ministry of Culture Cinema Award with his experimental film "Soil Men". In addition to his documentary film work, Prof. Sami Şekeroğlu, who conducted the "Turkish Cinema History Research Project", served as a jury member at film festivals in Turkey and abroad, had articles published in various local and foreign publications, and gave lectures on Cinema History, Aesthetics and Technique at undergraduate and graduate levels, was currently serving as the Director of the MSÜ Cinema-TV Center and Head of the Cinema-TV Department at the MSÜ Faculty of Fine Arts.