Recent documentary films about migration: in search of common humanity

The article analyzes four recent documentary films that deal with the current migration crisis, describing migration from Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. The Land Between (David Fedele, 2014), Salam Neighbor (Zach lngrasci and Chris Temple, 2015), Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, 2016) and Unknown Refugee (Hamy Ramezan, 2016) try to get behind news images and to give a more human account of migration and refugeedom. What strategies do these 'human rights films' (TascOn, Sonia M. 2012. Considering Human Rights Films, Representation, and Ethics: Whose Face? Human Rights Quarterly 34 (3): 864-883) use in order to make the crisis meaningful in a situation where images of catastrophes surround us everywhere? Film analysis is framed by a discussion of theories that deal with the representation of distant suffering and the role of cinema in humanitarian activity. The key question that structures the analysis is, how can the fact that cinema is based on an arrangement where some look and others are looked at be combined with the humanitarian aim of overcoming power hierarchies and promoting human equality (Chouliaraki, Lilie. 2013. The Ironic Spectator. Solidarity in the Age of Post-Humanitarianism. Cambridge: Polity Press)? What aesthetic and narrative devices do the films use in order to circumvent the afore-mentioned paradox and to bridge the gap between 'them' and 'us'?