Since 2016 Migration Collective has been organising public events and projects aimed at challenging the narrow rhetoric on migration and at supporting grassroots organisations working on migration issues.
Europa
On 28 March we screened Europa by director Haider Rashid at Genesis Cinema
Europa follows Kamal, a young man fleeing Iraq to try to enter Europe. At the Turkish-Bulgarian border, local mercenaries are ruthlessly hunting down migrants. Alone in the forest, he has three days to escape.
The screening was followed by a Q&A with: Dr Oula Kadhum, Daniele Bernabei, and Rosie Carter
Berlin Alexanderplatz
On 23 February in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, we held an online screening Berlin Alexanderplatz by director Burhan Qurbani, followed by a Q&A
This award winning film is based on Alfred Döblin's modern classic from 1929. In this contemporary reimagination, the story does not begin in Berlin, but rather in the Mediterranean sea as Francis, a refugee from Guinea-Bissau, fights to take ownership of his destiny in Europe.
The screening was followed by a Q&A with director Burhan Qurbani and Dr Myria Georgiou
London Migration Film Festival 2021
The London Migration Film Festival proudly held its fifth annual edition from 25 Nov - 1 Dec 2021. Across more than 20 events, including film screenings, workshops, online events and panel discussions we brought people together at six venues across London.
If you would like to submit a film to the 2022 edition, then please follow these instructions
Migration & Diaspora Book Club
Over the past few years a growing number of writers have focused on the experience of migrants and members of diasporas.
Starting from July 2018, we have begun hosting regular book club gatherings to explore books such as The Lonely Londoners, Exit West, and many more.
If you want to join the book club, have suggestions or just want to meet new people who share a passion for literature and/or migration click here and join our next gathering.
In August 2019 we held our first Migration & Diaspora Literature Festival in London. Over the course of three days and six events, we explored how migration and diaspora are analysed and portrayed within developing literary genres, including fiction, spoken word, graphic novels, poetry and more.
Beyond Borders Festival: Eldorado
For the first night of the three-day Beyond Borders festival, The People's Film Club & Migration Collective teamed up for an exclusive screening of Eldorado - a documentary which explores the journeys refugees take across the Mediterranean and the reception they receive upon arrival in Europe.
Difference Festival:
Voyeurism in Documentary Filmmaking on Migration
We invite you to sit at our Long Table and take part in discussions with filmmakers, protagonists, curators and activists sharing their work and radical strategies to resist voyeurism in film-making on migration. Explore our positions as storytellers, curators and media consumers, think about the responsibilities of those who create visual narratives based on another’s experience and engage with some of those to whom these stories belong.
LSFF 2019: At Home and not at Home
On 20 Jan 2018, we partnered with with the London Short Film Festival to present a programme of short films tracing the self-authored black British presence on screen, from the early filmmakers of the Windrush generation and those to follow.
Wrestling resources from an inimical industry, these works reclaim representation from a hegemony of white faces and the dominance of the white gaze, looking to postcolonial London, the realities of its racism and insularity of class, and the unhomeliness of the migrant experience.
London Migration Film Festival 2018
The third edition of London Migration Film Festival took place between 29 November - 5 December. Through more than 20 events, including film screenings, workshops, plays and panel discussions we brought together close to 2,000 people across London.
London Migration Film Festival 2017
Following the success of the first London Migration Film Festival, with our second edition we decided to expand from Deptford into other parts of London, presenting a wider selection of films and events and attracting more than 1,500 people over the course of a week.
Stories Untold
Stories Untold is a short-film series that spoke to 6 London based migrants from different social, political and economic backgrounds, who told us their story with their own words.
We are aiming to share these stories far and wide, screening them in schools, businesses and both national and international festivals.
Living Library
Within Refugee Week 2017 we organised a two-day Living Library, hosted in the garden of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
For this project around 20 people with a refugee background or who work with refugees became 'books' and told their stories to small groups of 'readers', who had the chance to interact with, listen from and ask questions to real people, thus going beyond the stereotypical 'refugee crisis' headlines and media representation of refugees.
Migration Stories
In February 2017 Migration Collective joined the national campaign #1daywithoutus to celebrate migration in all of its forms.
In collaboration with Spark, we held a storytelling event where self-identifying migrants had the chance to tell their stories with their own words, offering the audience a fresh perspective on migration.
London Migration Film Festival 2016
London Migration Film Festival was officially launched in November 2016, and it included eight films, three concerts, two panel discussions, one networking event and one kite-making workshop. To know more about the first edition of the festival, click here.
We are currently working on the 2019 edition of the festival – keep an eye open on our website and on LMFF Facebook page to find out more about it!
If you would like to submit a film please follow these instructions
A Common Step
A Common Step was the first event organised by Migration Collective in June 2016.
Through spoken word, live music, an exhibition, and a short video it aimed to raise funds for and awareness of the work of L'Auberge des Migrants, a grassroots charity supporting migrants in Calais.
Get in touch!
We are always happy to collaborate with new groups and individuals on interesting projects. If you are passionate about migration issues and have an idea you’d like to share, or if you’d like to get involved and support our work, please drop us a line at themigrationcollective@gmail.com
We are: Laura Stahnke, Lily Parrott, Saliha Majeed-Hajaj, Valentina Costa, Jennifer Ngo and Selena Daly.
Photos by Wasi Daniju