The documentary of 'The Debt of Mastic Trees' in the context of collective memory

In a traditional Turkish family where the intergenerational transmission is made orally, a family tree document was reached a few years ago. The fact that a story of slavery that has not been told in the family before is included in the tree which formed the basis for this dissertation. The place where the slave was brought was Chios Island belonging to Greece at present time. In the family tree that slave was mentioned as a talented child or a youth bought from the slave market and brought to the Kurşunlu district of Çankırı province. His name was changed to Mustafa. The date refers to approximately the 1820s. It was also the period when the island belonged to Ottoman lands and the Greek war of independence first appeared on the Island. Information about the real name, date of birth and family on the island could not be reached of the person known as Slave Mustafa somehow. Mustafa married the daughter of the merchant who bought him in his new land and took root. The aim of this study is to find and document the story of Mustafa, of whom I am the fifth generation grandchild, in today's memories and to investigate the past interests of current generations within the framework of the concept of collective memory. Besides this dissertation, a documentary was shot that brought this story into life. The documentary was designed as Reflexive Style because of the director's search for her own past and the bond she tried to establish with Mustafa. Chios Island and Kurşunlu districts have been the filming area on the concepts of place, memory and slavery. With the oral history method, conversations with family elders living in Kurşunlu district and experts working on history in Chios Island were recorded. Data collected from both regions were narrated in the documentary The Debt of Mastic Trees and analyzed with a theoretical approach about collective memory in this dissertation. As a result of the study, it was found out that the collective memory of the past was preserved in both societies, yet slavery was considered as an expired period that no longer corresponds to daily life.