Film, national cinema, and migration

Abstract

The emergence of motion pictures and the phenomenon of world migrations are profoundly interrelated: their threads span from social and economic history to racial politics and film aesthetics. The historical appearance of moving pictures in the West coincided, in fact, with an increasing network of commercial transactions and movement of goods and peoples that connected industrially developed countries with each other and with underdeveloped ones. Over the past half‐century, migration patterns have followed ever more complicated geographical routes. As such they have more broadly and radically affected contemporary media geography and film poetics even though migrations per se have not had a comparably transformative impact on all national film cultures. Still, the world's film cultures, when read through the lens of migration, reveal overlooked historical junctures and inform fruitful revisionist takes, particularly with regard to national cinemas’ past and future significance.

Cinematic Im/mobilities in the Planetary Now

“…As Giorgio Bertellini notes, "[t]he emergence of motion pictures and the phenomenon of world migrations are profoundly interrelated: their threads span from social and economic history to racial politics and film aesthetics." 16 Beyond the key role of migrants in early American film production and consumption as well as silent film's Cinematic Im/mobilities in the Planetary Now…”

Caught in the Loophole: Film Aesthetics and the (Im)mobilisation of Migrant Dreams in Xavier Koller’s Journey of Hope (1990)

“…Giorgio Bertellini argues that "[t]he emergence of motion pictures and the phenomenon of world migrations are profoundly interrelated: their threads span from social and economic history to racial politics and film aesthetics." 8 As Bertellini explains, the links between migration and cinema range from the central role of immigrant filmmakers and audiences in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century to the prominence of "[d]isplaced and mobile subjects" 9 alongside transnational stories and productions in recent European cinemas. 10 Since the late twentieth century, "new migrations -from the Balkans, northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia to both Western and non-Western locations" have been combined "with new modalities of media production and distribution -independent, nonhegemonic, parainstitutional -that have greatly complicated traditional practices of cinematic narratives and reception."…”

“…8 As Bertellini explains, the links between migration and cinema range from the central role of immigrant filmmakers and audiences in the United States at the beginning of the twentieth century to the prominence of "[d]isplaced and mobile subjects" 9 alongside transnational stories and productions in recent European cinemas. 10 Since the late twentieth century, "new migrations -from the Balkans, northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia to both Western and non-Western locations" have been combined "with new modalities of media production and distribution -independent, nonhegemonic, parainstitutional -that have greatly complicated traditional practices of cinematic narratives and reception." 11 Indeed, as Angelica Fenner argues, the making of and response to Journey of Hope "coincided with a critical juncture in history" that saw the beginning of new mass migrations from East to West in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and conflicts in the Middle East.…”

“…10 Since the late twentieth century, "new migrations -from the Balkans, northern Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia to both Western and non-Western locations" have been combined "with new modalities of media production and distribution -independent, nonhegemonic, parainstitutional -that have greatly complicated traditional practices of cinematic narratives and reception." 11 Indeed, as Angelica Fenner argues, the making of and response to Journey of Hope "coincided with a critical juncture in history" that saw the beginning of new mass migrations from East to West in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union and conflicts in the Middle East. 12 Koller's film was based on a true story that the director had read about in the newspaper, the story of a Kurdish boy dying from cold and exhaustion in the Swiss Alps while attempting to illegally enter Switzerland with his parents.…”

Perception management – Deterring potential migrants through information campaigns

“… 3. It is not my aim here to single out any specific ‘migration film’ besides my own, nor can I review a genre whose production is vast. For an overview, see Bertellini (2013) and Grossman and O’Brien (2008). On the assumption of a causal relation between representation – perception – behaviour, see Rancière (2009) as well as my discussion in Image/Migration (Heller, 2014b).…”