Screening + Talk: Those Who Jump (Les Sauteurs)

Join us for a film screening of Les Sauteurs (Those Who Jump) and a discussion with researcher Dr. Lorenzo Pezzani and Syrian artist-filmmaker Amel Alzakout.

This evening will reflect on participatory approaches to documentary making and democratising cultural production - questioning who gets to tell stories and how - explored through the lens of narratives centred on migration in the Mediterranean.

Les Sauteurs (Those Who Jump) (2016), recounts the daily lives of a group of West African migrants living in an informal camp in the mountains of Northern Morocco, as they plan and attempt to cross the militarised border into Spain. Filmed by Malian migrant Abou Bakar Sidibé in collaboration with Danish filmmakers Estephan Wagner & Moritz Siebert, and intercut with state surveillance footage, the film chronicles Sidibé’s personal journey as both first-time filmmaker and undocumented migrant. The film raises key questions of authorship and positionality in documentary filmmaking, exposing the militarised border regime in the Mediterranean region and Europe’s controversial foreign policy.

The screening will be followed by a conversation where Lorenzo and Amel will discuss their respective film-making practices, which have paved the way in both documenting and indicting human rights violations in the Mediterranean, and ethical responsibility regarding participatory filmmaking and images of racialised violence.

Film Content Warning: Depictions of violent and xenophobic border enforcement practices.