“The migrant gaze” and “the migrant festive chronotope”- programming the refugee crisis at the European human rights and documentary film festivals. The case of the One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival (2016).

Abstract

ABSTRACTA ‘migrant festive chronotope?’ is established in the zone of crisis for the audiences, the programmers and importantly also for those whose lives are represented on screen, in this case, the refugees who came to Europe in the summer of 2015. The decision to programme films about refugees as the crisis is ongoing, as it was the case with the Czech One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival in 2016, postulates the space of the festival as a safe heaven, a kind of a home, for the audiences and those migrants whose lives are shown in the films. A dialogue can be established as a result, an opening created between the two. The transformation of the humanitarian gaze into the migrant one is about a process of identification of the audiences with the migrants plight. This new identification, a migrant gaze (and voice) can be an indication of some modest political or social change a film festival may be able to achieve. The possibility of some social change is a key characteristic of the ‘migrant festive chronotope’