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MOVING
IMAGES
RELIGION AND MIGRATION IN FILM
In recent years,
several films on migration and refugees have been shown at festivals
and raised controversial media discussions. They offer a worthwhile,
often disturbing representation of migration and human beings
who have to escape from conflicts all over the globe to look for
new possibilities of living. They show how local populations react
to refugees or, under precarious economic conditions, become refugees
themselves. Migration and refugees are challenging topics for
filmmakers. Their representations today often transgress traditional
boundaries between genres so that the differences between documentary,
feature film and other media have to be reconsidered. These moving
images of migration and refugees challenge genre conventions,
stereotypes and values, as well as the ways we represent "others",
and thus also "us".
Contemporary
images of the phenomenon of migration do not only produce new
images and understandings of the current refugee crisis, but also
of the ways in which we view and react to images and audio-visual
material. Filmmakers and producers are conscious of the multitude
of images that we encounter: film material by professional journalists
or unknown persons on both sides of the Mediterranean; audio-visual
material in the news, on Youtube or social media; press photos
and manipulated screenshots of unknown origins are spread online
and in print media. All these phenomena raise questions of media
ethics about responsibility and accountability regarding the use
and reception of moving images.
This project
includes a conference
and a publication in the series Religion,
Film und Medien.
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