Flamingo documentary gains award in US festival

ANTALYA – Demirören News Agency

A documentary depicting the environmental problems the flamingos of the Delta of Gediz face has won the “Best Environmental Movie” award at the Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival.

The 30-minute movie named “Pembe Misafirler” (Pink Guests), known as the first Turkish documentary on flamingos, was directed by Murad Mammadov and Pelit Turgut and produced by Ahmet Utku Soylu. Gökçe Aydın, a bird watcher who has supplied special footage of the flamingos to the movie staff, said, “The delta of Gediz is one of the two breeding sites in Türkiye for the flamingos.”

Salt producing facilities and artificial canals are two main environmental problems the flamingos witness in the delta, according to Aydın.

“The award is important to create awareness for the flamingos,” he added.

The Gediz Delta is the river delta at the confluence of the Gediz River with the Gulf of İzmir, in the western province of İzmir. It is a 14,900 meter area of land that occupies coastal parts of the Foça, Menemen, and Çiğli districts. It is one of the largest areas of coastal wetlands in Türkiye and has a biodiversity of plants and birds.

It is a “Ramsar site” since 1998 and an “Important Bird Area” since 2000.