Seascapes of solidarity: Refugee cinema and the representation of the Mediterranean

dc.contributor.authorVan De Peer, Stefanie
dc.contributor.editorHemelryk Donald, Stephanieen
dc.contributor.editorDavies Hayon, Kayaen
dc.contributor.editorSorbera, Luciaen
dc.date.accessioned2019-12-10T13:48:32Z
dc.date.available2019-12-10T13:48:32Z
dc.date.issued2019
dc.description.abstractFilms about refugees have been embraced by accented cinema. Indeed, exilic filmmakers continue to test the boundaries of cinema, and specifically its strong bonds with nation and land. But not all exiles are refugees. This article offers that for Arab refugees the journeys across the sea define their filmmaking and thus also the refugee film. If we acknowledge the sea as a central theme, motif and stylistic element in (some) refugee cinema, spectators may be able to experience refugee cinema more ethically. Using the concept of “Mediterranean thinking” as a central analytical tool, this article focuses on the visual representations of refugees in films made on and in the Mediterranean Sea, problematising the injustices in the representation of refugees since the so-called “refugee crisis”. With a film-philosophical approach to four films from North Africa and Syria, I emphasise how filmmakers directly or indirectly address the senses of their spectators with a cinema that highlights the instability of knowledge and power through movement and fluidity. An in-depth analysis of the visual qualities of water places fluid space and time at the centre of these refugee films. In Mediterranean refugee filmmaking, water enables an embodied experience that leads to allegiance and sympathy, in order to achieve solidarity. This approach is based on a desire to contribute to a new historiography in the service of a more just world. Transnational journeys shape the representations of refugees travelling, transforming and transcending the Mediterranean. Ultimately, this article examines how the migrant and the sea itself develop with the “refugee crisis”, visualised in a cinema adrift on the Mediterranean Sea.en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationVan De Peer, S. (2019) 'Seascapes of solidarity: Refugee cinema and the representation of the Mediterranean', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 18, pp. 38-53. https://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.18.04en
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.33178/alpha.18.04
dc.identifier.endpage53
dc.identifier.issn2009-4078
dc.identifier.issued18
dc.identifier.journalabbrevAlphaville
dc.identifier.journaltitleAlphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Mediaen
dc.identifier.startpage38
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/9411
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherFilm and Screen Media, University College Corken
dc.relation.urihttp://www.alphavillejournal.com/Issue18/ArticleVandePeer.pdf
dc.rights© 2019, the Author(s). This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.en
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
dc.subjectMediterranean thinkingen
dc.subjectSympathyen
dc.subjectSolidarityen
dc.subjectNorth Africaen
dc.subjectSyriaen
dc.titleSeascapes of solidarity: Refugee cinema and the representation of the Mediterraneanen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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