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On Writing The Anarchist Cinema
No full textThis article reflects on the process of researching and writing what became The Anarchist Cinema (2019), where I wrestled with the relationships that exist between anarchist theory and the history of film. I began by suggesting that the cinema has historically been an ‘anarchic’ space – whose unruliness faced persistent regulations of its onscreen content and of its patrons. I then suggested there are possibilities for a definition of an ‘anarchist’ film to exist (typified most commonly in critical circles in the work of avowed anarchist Jean Vigo), despite the contradiction of cinema being such an inherently capitalistic artform. Such a definition, I argued, can be broadened to include films not made by anarchists, but which include formal properties and themes relevant to anarchist politics. Such examples have been found in a number of exploitation film contexts, and as a case study I looked at a cycle of Women in Prison films from the 1970s that replicate Vigo’s broad anti-institution message in unruly cinematic structures and images.
The final section examined ways of bringing together these disparate and often clashing areas of cinematic history. How does one, for example, reconcile personal filmmaking by an anarchist in 1930s France with commercial American films that centre sexploitation imagery along with other attractions? The answer would be to accept that Anarchist Cinema has been a fluctuating historical trend woven into the development of cinema and springing up in contrasting transnational contexts (and crossing the boundaries between professional and amateur filmmaking). To reconcile these paradoxes and tensions, The Anarchist Cinema should be seen as an impermanent and disruptive force, but one that can be frequently disruptive of its own assumptions and conventions. Films, I propose, should not be ruled out from belonging to an anarchist tradition due to impure content or lack of a perfect alignment with presumed anarchist values. This article is a postscript reflecting on The Anarchist Cinema, as well as advancing new ideas and areas for examination
Six Sides of Migration
No full textThis photo collection consists of six color prints showing a visual representation of six sides of the international migration experience. Want to stay. Want to leave. Want to return. Forced to stay. Forced to leave. Forced to return. The different experiences of immigrants inform their information-seeking behaviors and practices before, during, and after the process of migration. The work is based on digitally transformed self-portraits of migrants at the US–Mexico border, and informed by research on their experience, trajectories, fears, goals, and aspirations
Les mobilisations familiales pour le départ migratoire à partir de la Casamance (Sénégal)
No full textLe rapport entre les salaires de base en Europe occidentale et en Afrique subsaharienne est d’au moins un facteur dix, voire nettement plus ; et il n’évolue guère. Beaucoup de jeunes Africains rêvent donc d’émigrer en Europe. La voie aérienne reste un privilège réservé aux familles des élites : pour prendre l’avion il faut un visa pour un pays européen. Sans visa il ne reste que la voie maritime, par navigation côtière le long des côtes africaines, et la voie terrestre à travers le Sahara. Ce sont ces voies très dangereuses et à l’issue aléatoire qu’empruntent chaque année des dizaines de milliers de migrants. L’article étudie le cas d’une famille de petits paysans-éleveurs vivant d’autosubsistance de l’intérieur de la Casamance, la région du Sud du Sénégal. Il permet de voir comment ce groupe familial de 42 personnes en vient à décider d’envoyer l’un des siens tenter d’entrer clandestinement en France, au risque de sa vie. Comment il choisit le migrant et se mobilise pour réunir les fonds nécessaires ; et ce qu’il advient des deux tentatives. Cette étude de cas donne une idée des étapes suivies chaque année par des dizaines de milliers d’autres familles en Afrique.
Mots Clés : Mobilisation, migration illégale, famille, voyage, Casamanc
Border-Crossing and “Temporal Otherness” in the Greater Region SaarLorLux: Residential Migrants’ Experiences of Divergence
No full textThis article deals with border-crossing and the experiences of “temporal otherness” of residential migrants who move their home from Luxembourg to the German side of the River Moselle. Research on temporal borders is highly influenced by a particular spatio-political relation: the West creating its underdeveloped other and coping with this other by controlling border-crossing, which in turn results in maintaining the idea of the other’s temporal remoteness. The Luxembourgish–German border region offers a complement to this perspective; here, one encounters migrants who move in the opposite temporal direction and appreciate certain forms of “being behind” in their new place of residence. These migrants must cope with divergences, i.e., with the fact that economic and socio-cultural conditions within their new socio-spatial universe, the cross-border region, have evolved differently. This article argues that the analysis of migrants’ memories is illuminating with respect to the question of the moral legitimacy of moving, and thus regarding the conception and everyday construction of cross-border communities. It sheds light on the fact that borderland research—by focusing on national differences and related conceptions of cross-border mobility and exchange—tends to ignore borderlanders’ notions of (regional) unity and related claims for convergence.
Keywords: cross-border residential mobility; divergence and convergence; temporal otherness; moral economy of belonging
Temporalities in 3D: Speeds, Intersections, and Time Sequentialities at the Portuguese Border
No full textThis article addresses the Portuguese border control regime by looking into the relationship dynamics between inspectors and foreign citizens at the first line of inspection. Through the lens of temporality, I consider how the presence or absence of certain bureaucratic records presented by travellers functions as a control device that produces three temporal dimensions which intersect with each other during the check, as exercised by inspectors. The way in which certain documents result in different speeds of document control (microtemporalities—advances, retreats, and hesitation); subsequently, I reflect on the elasticity of time, looking at the intersection between the past, present, and future; finally, I analyse how inspectors shift their gaze from the documents to the details they are composed of, thus introducing a sequential dimension to their assessment. This article argues that the uncertainty experienced by travellers reflects the instability and inconsistency of the state, caused by the contingency that permeates their encounters at the border where time operates as a technique of power. The study is based on 11 months of ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2021 and 2022, centred on the daily life of the inspectors of the Portuguese Immigration and Borders Service at an airport in mainland Portugal.
Keywords: anthropology of the state; external border; temporalities of migration; control devices
Selected Border Poems
No full textThese texts, published in the Italian collection Cinema Sarajevo (Ensemble 2022) and translated in English by Katie Webb, are born from a rib of the European project: REFEST, Images & Words on Refugee Routes (2018), which started in Sarajevo and developed in Croatia, Italy, and Spain, with eight Italian poets, sixteen Balkan photographers, and eight Spanish illustrators. These poems recount a cinema of lives with their pain, youthful dreams and delusions, the fear riding between two centuries, the truce of the war, and the desire for redemption beyond every exodus
Ecological Restoration Plan and Management Recommendations for Kanishay Park in North Saanich, BC
No full textKanishay Park in North Saanich, BC is prone to thickets of invasive Common Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Cutleaf Blackberry (Rubus laciniatus), and English Ivy (Hedera helix) among other things. The thickets of shrubby trees are causing a lack of structural diversity, native conifers are unable to reach expected heights and the shade caused by the thickets has led to bare ground in many areas. In fall of 2023, a work party cleared a test restoration site within the park. Based on the amount cleared by this work party, it is estimated that clearing of the entire degraded area of the park will take between 360 and 476 hours. Once the test restoration area was cleared, it was planted with 3 native conifer species, Abies grandis, Pseudotsuga menziesii, and Pinus monticola, as well as native shrubs Gaultheria shallon, and Polystichum munitum. These plants will be monitored to determine which species can survive best in the site’s conditions and should be planted throughout once the thickets and invasive species are removed. This restoration plan is intended as a guide for Friends of North Saanich Parks to hopefully continue the work that has been started there. Monitoring suggestions have also been included and involve continuous invasive species removal and trimming of native shrubs to allow space for planted conifers to grow