Özgür Doğan

Özgür Doğan (1 January 1978) is a Kurdish filmdirector. His works include On the Way to School and Voice of My Father.

Biography Özgür Doğan was born in a Kurdish village in Varto, Muş. He spoke only in Kurdish until the age of 6, and started to learn Turkish after that age. He stayed there until he was 10. Because they only had a primary school in the village, he and his four siblings alternately studied with their uncles. In 2001, he became a research assistant at the Middle East Technical University. In 2004, he got his master's degree in Media and Cultural Studies at the same university.

In 2003, together with Özgür Doğan, they decided to make a film about "miscommunication", but when financial problems intervened, they postponed the film. In September 2007 they began the film with their own efforts, and later received support from the Greenhouse Documentary Development Workshop, the Sundance Documentary Fund and the Dutch Jan Vrijman Fund. After nine months of work, they completed the documentary film On the Way to School. The film received several awards from various festivals, including the Best Film Award at the Golden Orange Film Festival.