Balkans Beyond Borders had the pleasure to participate in the Refugee Week Greece programme, in the film section ‘Compass Films’, with a screening and panel discussion titled Crossing Borders and Borderlands. The event took place on Friday, June 23d, at the beautiful space of TAF in the center of Athens.
The Crossing Borders and Borderlands screening programme featured four short films in collaboration with Balkans Beyond Borders Short Film Festival and London Migration Film Festival. We, the team of Balkans Beyond Borders, were extremely proud to see two exceptional short films of our 13th BBB Short Film Festival Competition Programme travel to new, exciting and inclusive spaces, like this years’ Compassion fueled diverse programme that Refugee Week Greece kindly orchestrated. The dual collaboration of Balkans Beyond Borders and the London Migration Film Festival was an intriguing experience for us and for all who kindly participated and honored us with their presence, especially because the theme Borders and Borderlands offers such an important ground for reflexivity, compassion and dialogue, something that Balkans Beyond Borders strives time and again to reflect on and build upon.
Crossing Borders and Borderlands screenings programme
Dark Light by Klaudia Pashnjari and My own personal Lebanon captured the nuances of migrational experiences, meanings of national identity, intergenerational memories and trauma. They were screened among two brilliant short films of the London Migration Film Festival selection, A Horse Has More Blood Than a Human by Abolfazl Talooni and A year in exile by Malaz Usta, each poetic, emotional and political entangled in their own right. The selected short films of the screening programme illustrated a cinematic mosaic of personal imprints alongside the complexities of the experiences of migration and through the empathetic aesthetics of film, moving our gazes and presence closer to each other, much like a Compass.
As Compass Films accurately framed it: ‘Today, crossing borders is referred to as a political act rather than a human one. In fact, little is known of this process beyond it being framed as ‘illegality’, and representing sinking rubber boats in the context of European border-crossing. However, forced migration entails numerous crossings, some more obvious than others and each carries its own meaning: the experience can be mountainous, it can be through the sea, it can feel as though one is crossing the line from the past, starting over. The physicality of the act can bring unexpected emotions: some forget their past whilst others are not allowed to move past it. Who are we before, during, and after we move? Does this process ever end?’
Following the screening, a panel discussion took place with the Balkans Beyond Borders Festival Director and co-founder Vasiliki Maltasoglou, the director of the short film My own personal Lebanon Theo Panagopoulos, and the curator of the screening programme Natalia Galos. Drawing inspiration from the selected films, the panel discussed the notions around ‘borders’ and ‘borderlands’. Natalia Galos mentioned that “When we talk about borders and their crossing I think many of us only think of this specific act, or moment in time, but we do not necessarily engage with the idea of the border in other spaces. This also deals with a wider debate in migration about what words to use/when to accurately describe a situation. As RWG our aim and message is to engage in a form of inclusion that goes beyond labels. But this is a constant work in progress and it can be very challenging to explain. These are very emotional debates to depict and words matter.” Vasiliki Maltasoglou, Director of the BBB Short Film Festival pointed out the role of film festivals in raising awareness on topics such as migration to the wider public, since films have the power to offer nuanced perspectives and challenge preconceived notions. She concluded that, “The BBB Short Film Festival aims to create a collective and open space, where people can share their experiences and shed light on numerous and diverse stories of migration, revealing the multidimensional and intersectional dimension of migration and borders.”.