An exploration of the role of narratives in the bureaucracy around asylum law.
The screening is accompanied by the presention 'movement/s in resistance' by Sowmya Maheswaran, followed by a conversation with Alex Reynolds.
Segunda persona, tercera persona (part I), 2023, video, 18’, color, FR ST EN
'Segunda persona, tercera persona' stems from an ongoing research on the centrality of narrative in the institutional bureaucracy surrounding asylum law. Based on the transcription of an interview held at the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (OFPRA), the film presents an exhaustive set of questions that place the viewer in the position of the interviewee, revealing the weight of storytelling on the lives of its protagonists.
The work of artist and filmmaker Alex Reynolds (b. 1978, Bilbao) constantly explores our modes of relation and affection as they appear embodied in the cinematic language. Altering narrative structures, commands and rhythms in production, playing with the conventions of acting and storytelling as well as the role of the viewer, the artist defies our perception beyond the perimeter of the screen and the realm of images.
https://www.instagram.com/losreinos/
Sowmya Maheswaran is an anthropologist working in the fields of research, political consultancy and journalism. Her main areas of interests are global configurations of colonialism, capitalism and migration/flight as well as politicisation, resistance and social transformation. In her ongoing PhD project, she is focusing on struggles in the context of (post-)war, displacement and self-determination by ethnographically examining Tamil movement/s within Sri Lanka and in diasporic exile. Sowmya is a research associate in the project 'Transforming Solidarities. Practices and Infrastructures in the Migration Society' at the Berlin Institute of Empirical Migration Research (BIM).
https://www.instagram.com/sowmy.ah/
voice | Maïder Fortuné
camera, editing | Alex Reynolds
sound recording | Lennert de Taeye
sound mixing | Laszlo Umbreit
colour grading | Lennert de Taeye
drivers | Carole Sainsard, Bastien Hartmann
research, development, and production assistant | Claire Benoit
production support | Carole Sainsard, Monica Ross
project accompaniment | Andrea Queralt
credits | Will Holder
stills | Alex Reynolds, 'Segunda Persona, tercera persona (part I)'
