Rıza Oylum received his bachelor’s degree from Istanbul Kültür University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature, and his master’s degree from Trakya University, Institute of Social Sciences, Department of Turkish Literature. He has published articles on cinema and literature in magazines such as Varlık, Virgül, Agora, Film Arası, Kitapçı and Edebiyathaber.net. He has written books on Far Eastern Cinema, Russian Cinema, German Cinema, Middle Eastern Cinema, Cinema Lessons from World Directors, Nineties and Iranian Cinema. He has served as a jury member, curator and editor at national and international festivals. In addition to giving lectures on national cinema in Turkey and abroad, he has also held workshops.
In addition to his publications on world cinema, he has written articles on the representation of different cultural and ethnic groups in Turkish cinema. Some of these works include “Representations of Alevism in Cinema, From Agop to Artin: Armenian Characters of Our Cinema”, “Greek Appearances in Cinema: From the Gangster Hrisantos to the Migrant Tasula”, “From Sarraf Salomon to the Street Girl Kirpi: Jews of Our Cinema”. Deciding to transform his work on minority elements from writing to documentary in order to create a visual memory,
Oylum continues his journey in the cinema industry by taking on the role of director for the first time in the documentary “Rootless Resident”.
He is a member of SIYAD (Turkish Film Critics Association), PEN-Turkey and BSB The Association of Documentary Filmmakers in Turkey. He is currently an academic at Üsküdar University and a columnist for Gazete Duvar.
