Against a Migrant Cinema. Critical Reflections on the Postcolonial Perspective. (original) (raw)
2019, Cinergie
The notion of “migrant cinema”, on the one hand, tends to historicize a phenomenon,recognizing in the current socio-political context a common ground on which such products, despite theirdiversity, can grow; on the other hand, like any codification, this historicization tends to bring back to thecollective sphere what is often an individual artistic expression: as it does not speak of society, it is simplynot interesting. In this sense, as we will try to argue in this essay, the postcolonial perspective on the onehand proves to be effective, as it opens up film studies to important methodological contaminations; on theother hand, as a negative consequence, it tends to treat “migrant cinema” as a genre in its own right, thustransforming the “eye of the migrant” into an “eye on migrant”. In a critical-theoretical perspective, thispaper will debate on how the denial of the existence of a migrant cinema is not an attempt to deconstruct aconsolidatedhistoriographicalframe, butonthecontrary, itisawaytoavoidthatthishistoricizationimpliesand replicates the same dynamics of abjection that it tends to eliminate.
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