Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Filmmaking
From Alice Diop in France and Rosine Mbakam in Belgium to Fatih Akin in Germany and Arash T. Riahi in Austria, migrant and second-generation filmmakers have shaped and continue to shape European cinema. At the same time, projects like the Palermo-based film laboratory FunKino or the Glasgow-based Refugee TV Film Lab, encourage young migrants to express their experiences through the medium of film, while initiatives like Refugee Voices in Film help to raise awareness for migrant filmmakers at important industry events like the Cannes and Berlin film festivals. Nevertheless, great disparities still exist in the extent to which migrant filmmakers have managed to penetrate established commercial film industries across different nations. Moreover, over the last fifteen years, the ‘refugee crisis’ of 2015, the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union, and the wars in Syria and Ukraine have substantially changed the political realities in Europe. At the same time, the increased availability of cheap and high-quality digital recording technology, the emergence of Social Media, and the spread of video streaming platforms have had a transformative impact on filmmaking, opening new possibilities for migrants to recount their own experiences through moving images.
Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Filmmaking, a three-day conference at the University of Kent (17–19 April 2024), funded by ILCS, the Modern Humanities Research Association, the Eastern Arc Research Consortium and the Austrian Cultural Forum London, explored these issues and challenges to provide and up-to-date snapshot of the possibilities and challenges for migrant cinema in Europe. The conference was organised by Dr Kaveh Abbasian (Lecturer in Film & Media Practice), Dr Tobias Heinrich (Lecturer in Modern Languages) and Dr Alex Marlow-Mann (Lecturer in Film) and brought together scholars and practitioners to investigate the role of first and second-generation migrants in European filmmaking, exploring the effects that financial and institutional parameters as well as creative and political discourses have on the diversity across film industries of Europe, including the UK.
Over the course of the three days there were eight academic panels organised thematically around a wide range of topics of contemporary relevance: Gender, Identity and Sexuality; Participatory Filmmaking Practices; Iranian Women Filmmakers in the Diaspora; Decolonization; Biographical Perspectives on Migrant Filmmakers and Performers; Archives of Migration; Conceptualising Migrant Filmmaking; German Migrant Cinema. The panels typically comprised three separate papers and were followed by a chaired Q&A involving all participants. The academic section of the conference was headlined by a keynote by one of the pioneering scholars on (European) migrant cinema, Prof. Daniela Berghahn (Royal Holloway, London), entitled ‘Far Flung Families in Contemporary European Cinema’. The conference also featured a special roundtable with Arash T. Riahi, Daniela Berghahn, Kaveh Abbasian and Kirsten Adkins, which offered an opportunity to explore in greater depth some of the key themes which criss-crossed the conference as a whole. Overall, the academic section of the conference successfully combined cutting-edge original research into specific topics with more general debate about conceptual issues and themes and generated lively participation and debate with the audience.
In total, there were fifteen Screenings, all of which took place in a dedicated on-campus screening venue, the Lupino Cinema. These included films by practitioners from various countries and backgrounds. Short films and audiovisual projects were divided into seven slots, based on their themes and topics. The two feature-length screenings were followed by Q&A with the respective filmmakers. The Austrian director and producer, Arash T Riahi, who is also president of the Austrian Film Academy, presented his 2009 film For a Moment Freedom (Austria, France) that addresses some of his own experiences as an Iranian refugee. The screening was followed by a discussion on various technical, conceptual, and political topics. The Syrian filmmakers Amel Alzakout and Khaled Abdulwahed presented Purple Sea (Germany, 2020) made from images after the boat on which Amel was fleeing Syria sank off the coast of Lesbos. The filmmakers joined the event online.
The conference as a whole provided an excellent forum not only for the exchange of research and ideas, but also for networking, helping to create a platform for future collaborations between scholars and practitioners. We are currently in discussion about possible follow-up initiatives, to build on this momentum. We are also currently preparing to submit a proposal to Palgrave MacMillan for an edited collection, which will feature a selection of papers from the conference and which we hope to publish in 2026.
The following video captures some impression from the conference: https://youtu.be/-4qhP3DL2DY?si=FvBE6ZYsxVXejm8f
Dr Tobias Heinrich | Lecturer in German | Course Lead Modern Languages | University of Kent