Migrant Documentary Filmmaking: Shifting Cultures & Problematizing the Silenced Across African Borders

Authors

1 faculty of mass communication, Cairo University

2 College of Language and Communication Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport

Abstract

Augmenting the concepts inherent in muted group theory, this research paper examines the lives of the marginalized groups of the African migration issue in documentary filmmaking. It investigates the sphere of a co-cultural communication theoretical model that focuses on how those marginalized group of migrants communicate within dominant societal structures.  Though conducting semi- structured interviews with ten international and local documentary filmmakers, the paper draws upon several phenomenological and philosophical inquiries that inductively involve the lived experiences of filmmaker’s illegal migrants. The findings of this qualitative study result in into real-world applications including mass media, social rituals and authorities. The filmmakers’ interviews give much insights and context to how authorities treat migrants. In addition, it has proved that females are much less represented in migratory films. Male sources largely dominated the whole scene of the films which were made by filmmakers interviewed. Out of 15 films, only two films represented female migrants. This gives much insights into plausible further research and studies that can put females into the context of subjects, sources and stories in order not to be silenced.

Keywords

References

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