[Commlist] CFS: - Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Cinema

Call for Submissions: Migrant Voices in Contemporary European Cinema 
University of Kent 17-19th April 2024

Submission Deadline: 30th Nov 2023

   We are delighted to announce that we have now secured the 
participation of filmmakers Khaled Abdulwahed and Amel Alzakout, who 
will join Arash T.Riahi and Daniela Berghahn as keynote speakers.  We 
have also extended the deadline until 30th November, to allow for 
additional submissions.
Conference website: https://research.kent.ac.uk/migrant-cinema/
Keynote Speakers:
Khaled Abdulwahed (Filmmaker)  Amel Alzakout (Artist and Filmmaker)
Prof. Daniela Berghahn (Royal Holloway, University of London) Arash T. 
Riahi (Filmmaker, President of the Austrian Film Academy)

Feature-length Screenings

For a Moment, Freedom (Riahi, 2008) – Fiction
Purple Sea (Alzakout & Abdulwahed, 2020) – Documentary

This inter-disciplinary conference will bring together scholars and 
practitioners to investigate the role of first and second-generation 
migrants in the European film, exploring the effects that financial and 
institutional parameters as well as creative and political discourses 
have on the diversity across the film industries of Europe, including 
the UK.
> 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. This conference aims to explore these issues and challenges to provide an up-to-date snapshot of the possibilities and challenges for migrant filmmaking in Europe. 

We invite submissions in the form of either:  •	20-minute academic 
papers  •	Practical submissions (short/medium/feature-length films, 
documentaries, video essays, etc.) by migrant filmmakers  •	Panel 
proposals (3-4 panelists, up to 90 minutes)
Topics to be considered include, but are not limited to:
•	Migrant filmmaking within a specific national context; •	Migrant 
filmmaking from a transnational or comparative dimension; •	Political, 
economic or institutional barriers facing migrant filmmakers; •	Specific 
schemes or initiatives promoting and fostering migrant filmmaking; • 
Case studies of individual migrant filmmakers; •	Representation of 
migrants and/or migration; •	The effect of national and transnational 
social movements on diasporic and exilic filmmaking and vice versa (e. 
g. the case of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and its relationship 
with Iranian and Kurdish migrant filmmakers in Europe);
•	The impact of migrant filmmaking or the wider media/political 
discourse on migration; •	The impact of particular events (e.g. the wars 
in Syria and Ukraine, Brexit, changes in government) on migrant filmmaking;
There will also be a specific panel on Kent’s unique position in 
relation to the post-Brexit debate on migration; Creative and academic 
contributions to this panel are welcome.

Selected contributions will be published in an edited collection.

For academic papers, please send a 200-word abstract and 100-word bio to 
(migrantcinema /at/ kent.ac.uk).
For practical submissions, please send a 200-word summary of the project 
and, optionally, a link to the completed film to (migrantcinema /at/ kent.ac.uk)

Deadline for submissions: 30th November 2023
The conference will take place at the University of Kent, a national 
centre for research and activism on movement and migration, and will be 
organised between the departments of Film & Media and Modern Languages.
Fees & Bursaries
Fees for the conference will be £150 for those in full-time employment, 
£50 for post-graduates and those on fractional or precarious contracts 
or not currently in employment.
There will also be a number of fee waivers and bursaries available. If 
you fall into the latter category and wish to apply for a bursary, 
please include a few sentences at the end of your application detailing 
your employment situation and reasons why you should be considered. 
Bursaries will be competitive and awarded at the discretion of the 
organizing committee following acceptance of your submission. Conference 
organisers:  Dr Kaveh Abbasian, Dr Tobias Heinrich, Dr Alex Marlow-Mann 
University of Kent

The conference is supported by:

Austrian Cultural Forum
Eastern Arc: Academic Research Consortium
ILCS: Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies
MHRA: Modern Humanities Research Association

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