BORDER ASSEMBLAGES: SEEING IN, THROUGH AND UNDERNEATH THE CARCERAL REGIMES.
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
BORDER ASSEMBLAGES: SEEING IN, THROUGH AND UNDERNEATH THE CARCERAL REGIMES.
Film screening: Idrissa, Chronicle of an Ordinary Death (2018, Xavier Artigas & Xapo Ortega)
When: 21 March 2025, 18:30 - 21:00
Venue: Birkbeck Cinema, 43 Gordon Square.
Border Assemblages: Seeing In, Through And Underneath The Carceral Regimes.
Organised by the newly formed CILAVS Film Collective in collaboration with the Birkbeck Institute for the Moving Image, these film screenings examine the intricate relationship between borders, carceral systems, and the complexity of space. Through the lens of what we term ‘border assemblages’, the selected films invite us to dwell on the relational dynamics of carceral spaces and the emergence of particular subjectivities. ‘Border assemblages’ refers to the collection of actors, geographies, processes and materialities constituting borders.
Depicting and reflecting on issues such as carceral sites, lived experiences, and political struggles, each film gives us access to ways of seeing in, through, and underneath the border. In doing so, they provide insights into the trajectories, fluxes, and movements that characterise carceral regimes, as well as the affective and symbolic interactions that shape them. Beyond this, the screenings present an opportunity to explore how diverse methodologies of audiovisual representation –such as autoethnography and archival work– and formats, including feature films, shorts, and documentaries, contribute to complex forms of making sense of the geographies of border carceralities. Conversations with scholars, activists, and filmmakers will follow each screening.
Curated and organised by: Margarita Palacios (m.palacios@bbk.ac.uk), Sergio Calderón (s.calderonharker@bbk.ac.uk), & Daniela Larraín (d.larrain@mail.bbk.ac.uk)
21 March
Idrissa, Chronicle of an Ordinary Death (2018, Xavier Artigas & Xapo Ortega,).
Documentary 134 minutes, Spain.
Idrissa died in an immigration detention centre in Barcelona. His family was never informed, and he was buried in an unmarked grave. This documentary seeks to restore his dignity—something the Spanish judicial system has failed to do.
Speakers:
Annika Lindberg
Researcher at the University of Gothenburg. Her work focuses on European detention and deportation regimes, bureaucracy, and state violence, drawing on the anthropology of the state and critical border studies. She is the author of Deportation Limbo: State Violence and Contestations in the Nordics and co- author of Migrants Before the Law.
Contact name:
Matthew Barrington