Tuluhan Tekelioğlu

During her time in Paris, Tekelioğlu started her journalist career in 1992 joining the Sipa Press, which Gökşin Sipahioğlu founded. She returned to Turkey after two years of work in the agency.[1] Between 1994 and 2001, she worked for the daily Hürriyet. During this time, she served as a volunteer at the Kakuma UNHCR refugee camp in Kenya while serving as a correspondent for her newspaper in Turkey. She published her experiences in Kenya in an article series in the newspaper.[1][2][5] In 2007, she began reporting for the newspaper Sabah on Saturdays under the title "Her Şeye Rağmen İkimiz" ("We Two Despite Everything"), which focused on married couples' life. She later published this report series in a book with the same title.[2]

In 2001, Tekelioğlu transferred to the Turkey's first subscription-based television channel Cine5 to present her pr"ogram "Başka Yerde Yok" ("Not At Any Other Place"). From 2001 to 2003, she was with Habertürk TV presenting "Tatlı Sert" ("Sweet Hard"), and then for the TGRT TV, the program "Tuluhan'la Her Sabah" ("Every Morning With Tuluhan").[5] After a proposal by the notable journalist and television commentator Mehmet Ali Birand (1941–2013), she moved to Kanal D, where she became an anchorwoman for the morning news program serving between 2005 and 2006. She was next at Kanal 1, presenting the morning news program "Güzel 1 Gün" ("A Beautiful Day").[1] During this time, she raised funds for ten thousand books to be donated to primary schools in rural parts of eastern Turkey as in Siverek and Viranşehir, both in Şanlıurfa Province, and also initiated the foundation of libraries in Malatya.[5] In 2009, she presented the program "Boğaziçi’nden" (""From the Bosphorus) at the state-owned TV channel TRT 2.[1]

Tekelioğlu shot a documentary video on contemporary arts titled "Ayaküstü Cevaplar" ("Answers in Standing") interviewing 150 people in two years. The video was played at the arts gallery of Milli Reasürans ("National Reassurance Company") in 2008.[1]

In 2009, Tekelioğlu made the documentary film "40’ında 40 kadın" ("40 Women at Age 40") about forty women living in different quarters of Istanbul.[3][5][7] The content of the documentary film was transformed into a book by the Turkuaz Publishing the same year. In later years, the book's new editions were published, and a DVD version of the documentary film was released. Supported by the Women's Council of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB), the documentary film ran on 8 March 2011, the International Women's Day, in all 81 provinces of Turkey attracting great interest. The İZ TV aired the documentary film as well.[1]

In 2012, Tekelioğlu shot the documentary film "50’sinde Erkek" ("Men at 50") based on interviews with 23 males.[5][7] It was the first ever sociological study on males conducted in Turkey. The film was aired by İZ TV, and received wide interest.[1]

The idea for the creating of Tekelioğlu's third documentary film "Yeni Hayat" ("New Life") emerged as she accompanied her father at the Medical Park Hospital in Antalya, where he underwent a bypass surgery.[7] She stayed one month in the hospital with her father before, during, and after the surgery.[7] During this time, she learned that around 30 percent of all the organ transplantations in Turkey are performed in that city.[7] Her film documents the life of patients awaiting organ donation for transplantation before, during, and following the surgery.[7] In an interview with a daily in 2014, she noted that "the rate of organ donation in Turkey is 3 to one million while the average rate in the world is 17 to one million".[7] The film premiered at the 51st Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival.[8]

Tekelioğlu directed the documentary "Persona non Grata", Latin for "person not appreciated", produced by Punto24, a platform for independent journalism. The film features fired journalists who remained unemployed. Its premiere took place on 3 May 2015, World Press Freedom Day.[9] Tekelioğlu had lost her job at the newspaper Hürriyet in 2001 without knowing the reason. She was fired from the government-aligned daily Sabah after six years due to sharing news from the Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Twitter related to Gezi Park protests and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. She recounted that event in her book "Ya Bizdensin Ya Da..." ("You Are Either On Our Side Or ...").[10]

Another Tekelioğlu documentary film is the 2016-produced "Üvey Evlat" ("Step Child"),[5] which is about the suppression and censorship of the artists by the political regime in Turkey. A number of notable artists, including Genco Erkal, Müjdat Gezen, Şebnem Sönmez, Levent Üzümcü, Sunay Akın, Mehmet Aksoy, Fazıl Say, Ahmet Ümit, Füsun Demirel and Zülfü Livaneli, tell their experience in the 52-minute documentary.[11]

In 2018, Tekelioğlu produced the documentary film "Yapabilirsin" ("You Can Do It!"), which is about women who encourage Turkish society and give hope in difficult times to change from traditional roles imposed on them.[5] "They are courageous enough to light a candle every time when they face darkness, and they do it without struggling with males," says Tekelioğlu for her film characters. The film received loud applause from the audience at the Strasbourg International Film Festival. The "Bridge to Türkiye Fund" (BTF), an organization of Turkish women in the United States, brought the documentary to the United States, and made its run in eleven cities including New York City, Boston, Portland, Oregon, and Chicago, as well as in the states of Minnesota and Washington in the context of the 2018 International Women's Day.[5] The box office ticket sales revenue was used by the American BTF and the Turkish Association for the Support of Contemporary Living (Turkish: Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği, ÇYDD) for funding the scholarships of 80 Turkish girls.[3] A book version of "Yapabilirsin" was published as well.[3]

In her efforts to produce documentary films, Tekelioğlu is often assisted by her brother Balkan Tekelioğlu, who lives in France and is in the advertising business. During post-shooting, her brother assists her with the montage sequence.[3]