Güner Sarıoğlu


Güner Sarıoğlu was born in Anamur, Turkey in 1937. He graduated from the Academy of Economic and Commercial Studies in Ankara. His first employment was with Ankara Radio. In the preparatory stages of television broadcasting in Turkey and the establishment of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), he was sent to Germany for a year of instruction under a program of training TV producers, directors and technicians. In 1963 he became producer for the Drama Department of the Ankara Radio. He was closely involved in the efforts leading to the formation of the TRT and television broadcasting services. He worked for short spells at European broadcasters like BBC, ORTF and RAI for research and training purposes. For 10 years in TRT, he worked as television director and producer. He designed and led training courses for television producers, directors and cameramen, instructing trainees in these fields. In 1967, he compiled his training course notes into a basic reference handbook under the title "TV Production and Direction". A revised edition of this work was re-printed in 1979 by the University of Ankara. Sarıoğlu resigned from TRT in 1972 to join the radio-TV department of the School of Journalism, Faculty of Political Sciences, and University of Ankara as a lecturer, where he taught television poduction, directing, cinema, film and photography. He led efforts to set up in the school, facilities of a fully equipped radio studio, film, sound and editing rooms, a workshop comprising a photo studio and dark room. An advocate of the principle of learning during production, he invited student participation in the making of a documentary film titled "Ladik 76" on behalf of the School of Journalism. This film won two international awards as well as numerous prizes in Turkey. Other documentary films which he produced and directed in later years were broadcast by many foreign television stations. He meanwhile continued an association with TRT working for the Corporation as a freelance director-producer. In this capacity he directed news and documentary programs prepared and presented by Mehmet Barlas and Hıfzı Topuz. During the tenure of TRT General Director İsmail Cem, he was asked to organize a cameraman-training program. He successfully concluded this instruction program that lasted for five months. Leaving his position at the University, Sarıoğlu established his own company Filma Film and News Agency Ltd in 1982. For eminent foreign broadcasters like such as ZDF, CBS, BBC he continued to make news programs and documentaries both in Turkey and abroad. For 10 years, he provided news programs and documentaries from Turkey for BBC and for Visnews, the news film subsidiary of Reuters at that time. During the Gulf War in 1990, Filma Ltd provided one of the teams for CNN, covering Turkey and in particular the southeastern region on the Iraqi border. Sarıoğlu worked as cameraman and director on this assignment. Filma Ltd meanwhile was chosen as representative for Turkey by over 50 foreign organizations, to handle the purchase of their feature films, documentary films and news programs by Turkish broadcasters, including major works of European cinema. Sarıoğlu has lectured in several schools of journalism and communication in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir, imparting his expertise and experiences. Sarıoğlu's documentary "Ladik 76" and two other titles, "Sweat of the Felt" by Ertuğrul Karslıoğlu and "Three Days in Kula" by Süha Arın were named "Documentary of the Century" in 1995 as part of the activities organized on the 100th anniversary of film making. He left Filma Ltd. in 2004 to devote his time to photography. His photography collection titled "Stances and Looks" was exhibited in İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir. Samples of his photographs are available on www.gunersarioglu.com.tr. Photography continues to occupy most of his time. Sarıoğlu holds a permanent press card.