25' - Turkish - 2019 - 12 Episodes

TRT Documentary

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"The Last Gatherers" documents the relationship between humans and nature through subsistence practices outside the modern economy. The 12-episode series, directed by Kağan Daldal with cinematography by Woody Milagro, records traditional gathering and production methods that continue to exist in the face of changing technology and consumption habits.

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The documentary follows the daily lives of people who make their living by gathering from nature in different regions of Turkey: Aegean gatherers climbing 20-30 meter high trees for pine nuts, villagers searching for frogs in Marmara region swamps, pigeon guano gatherers in Cappadocia's volcanic geography, and divers who cannot swim collecting mussels in the dangerous waters of the Bosphorus.

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Each episode takes the viewer to the depths of a different ecosystem: sometimes watching people pursuing "black gold," known as bat guano in pristine caves' darkness, sometimes witnessing the difficult struggle of fishermen risking their own lives to collect ghost nets threatening marine life off the coast of Büyükada.

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Narrated by Mazlum Kiper, "The Last Gatherers" reveals a reality of Turkey that urban viewers cannot see by documenting these gathering practices that have remained in the shadow of industrial production.