Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Folklor/Edebiyat, cilt.32, sa.2, ss.603-630, 2026 (ESCI, Scopus, TRDizin)
Documentary cinema is a narrative form that reflects the lifestyles, traditions, rituals, and everyday practices of societies, communities, and individuals through a realistic approach. It provides audiences with both historical and cultural perspectives by offering insights into specific periods and places. Ethnographic documentaries, in particular, offer a detailed and in-depth perspective on the representation of cultural identities, social structures, and sociocultural processes. In this context, ethnographic productions provide visual documentation of local cultures, traditional ways of life, and social relations, while also mediating the preservation and transmission of cultural heritage. Therefore, such documentaries constitute valuable cultural resources not only for academic research but also for wider audiences. This study aims to examine how and for what purposes ethnographic content related to society and culture is incorporated into documentary films. It also addresses whether documentary cinema is limited to the representation of social reality or whether it enables the theoretical analysis of cultural structures and social relations. In this context, Suha Arın’s Kula’da Üç Gün (Three Days in Kula, 1983) was selected as the object of analysis due to its narrative strategies that enable the visual documentation of local culture and the director’s pioneering role in Turkish documentary cinema. The film was selected through purposive sampling, as it provides a meaningful basis for theoretical evaluation. The film was analyzed using the descriptive analysis method in line with theoretical approaches to ethnographic cinema. The analysis focused on narrative structure, use of space, the observational camera approach, narration, and character representation. The findings indicate that the documentary possesses ethnographic characteristics, reflects traditional ways of life, contributes to the transmission of cultural memory, and visually represents sociocultural structures.