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THE SCREEN AS a HOSPITABLE BORDER. Analysing the Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics of Documentary Films About Migration and Border-Crossing Experiences

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THE SCREEN AS a HOSPITABLE BORDER. Analysing the Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics of Documentary Films About Migration and Border-Crossing Experiences THE SCREEN AS A HOSPITABLE BORDER. Analysing the Ethics, Aesthetics and Politics of Documentary Films about Migration and Border-Crossing Experiences. Maria Jose Pantoja-Peschard Goldsmiths, University of London Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 1 DECLARATION OF AUTHORSHIP I, Maria Jose Pantoja-Peschard, declare that this thesis is submitted to Goldsmiths, University of London in support of my application for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. It has been composed by myself and has not been submitted in any previous application for any degree. This thesis and the work presented in it are my own and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: 1. This work was done wholly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; 2. Where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; 3. Where I have consulted the published work of others, this is always clearly attributed; 4. Where I have quoted from the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; 5. I have acknowledged all main sources of help; 6. Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; 7. Some parts of this work have been published as: Pantoja-Peschard, M. J. ‘A Hospitable Citizenship and Documentary Filmmaking.’ In Hutnyk, J. (ed.). Beyond Borders. London: Pavement Books, 2012, pp. 193-208. Pantoja-Peschard, M. J. ‘Beyond Representation: Documentary Films as Affective and Hospitable Practices: The Nine Muses.’ In Drummond, P. (ed.). The London Film and Media Reader 2. The End of Representation? Essays from FILM AND MEDIA 2012, the Second Annual London Film and Media Conference. London: The London Symposium, 2013, pp. 56-67. Maria Jose Pantoja-Peschard September 2014. 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This work would not have been possible without the continuous support and encouragement of a number of people. I would like to thank my two supervisors Dr Sophie Fuggle and Dr Nicole Wolf whose comments, questions and suggestions to my work were invaluable and largely benefited my research project. I am very grateful to them for their time and efforts. I would also like to thank Dr Jennifer Bajorek who supervised me during the initial stages of my research and who pointed me to the work of Ariella Azoulay. I received a loan from Banco de México and a scholarship from Secretaría de Educación Pública that enabled me to pursue my studies in London. I am grateful for this financial support. I wish to thank my colleagues and friends at the Centre for Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, for their solidarity and academic advice throughout my doctorate studies. I especially want to thank Lillian Llamas, Karen Tam, Eva Payno del Rio and Leila Whitley. I am also indebted to my friends in London for their friendship and for making me feel at home while I was away from my country and family. In particular, I would like to thank Ozge Karabiyik, Scott Johnson, Laura Graham-Dullaert, Hinako Hatcher, Zoe Howell, Eloisa di Giacomo, Wei-Ting Yang, Alejandra del Rio, Lee Monk, I-Hui Lai and Patrice Briggs. I am also grateful to my friends in Mexico, Isadora Cuéllar, Emilienne Limón and Anahí Bagu, for their kindness and unconditional friendship. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family for their generosity, their constant encouragement and their love. I wish to thank my siblings Julia, Juan Pablo and Yuri. And very especially, I wish to thank my parents, David and Jacqueline, for being a constant source of inspiration, for their understanding and for their endless support. I wish to dedicate this thesis to them. 3 ABSTRACT My project aims to sketch out a theoretical framework to think about documentary films about migration and border-crossings in terms of their political potential. Thus, this work seeks to address the question of whether and how it is possible for these documentaries to give rise to political and ethical relationships that are not directly sanctioned by the nation-state and its sovereign power. In order to do this, I first draw on Jacques Derrida’s proposal of an ethics and politics of hospitality as an alternative conceptualization of political relations that, instead of being determined by membership to a nation-state and geo-political borders, are based on relations of responsibility and solidarity amongst individuals regardless of their citizenship status. Secondly, I argue that Ariella Azoulay’s triadic model of photography exemplifies Derrida’s notion of the ethics and politics of hospitality. For Azoulay, photography can give rise to political relations between the photographed, the photographer and the spectators. Since these relationships are not mediated by the nation-state and are based on partnership, solidarity and equality, I claim that they are relationships of hospitality that are able to disrupt the hierarchies of the social order. Thirdly, I argue that Azoulay’s triadic model can be transposed to the form of documentary, but that this transposition needs to acknowledge the fact that photography and documentary are two different visual media. Finally, I expand my analysis of this transposition by examining three contemporary documentaries about migration and drawing on the work of Jacques Rancière, Hito Steyerl and Trinh T. Minh-Ha. I discuss how the political and ethical bonds between filmmaker, filmed subject and spectators are shaped by the form and stylistic features of each of these documentaries. I conclude that documentaries are like borders, interstitial spaces, where the question of politics converges with questions of ethics and aesthetics. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction I. The Cut and the Border…………………………………………………………7 II. The Politics of the Image……………………………………………………...10 III. Transpositions………………………………………………………………...17 IV. Outline of the Thesis…………………………………………………………20 Chapter 1 Borders and Hospitality. The Relation Between Ethics and Politics I…………………………………………………………………………………….24 II. National Sovereignty and its Link to Citizenship……………………………....26 III. Understanding Borders………………………………………………………...29 IV. The Multiple Meanings of Borders…………………………………………....33 V. Heterogeneous and Ubiquitous Borders………………………………………..38 VI. A Derridian Hospitality………………………………………………………..43 VII. Politics of Friendship as Other, Undecidability, Responsibility and Ethics……………………………………..………………………………………..47 VIII. What is a Politics of Hospitality?....................................................................53 IX. A Politics Beyond the Limits of the Nation-State……………………………..57 X. Final Remarks………………………………………………………………......62 Chapter 2 Photography as a Political Space. Aesthetics, Politics and the Notion of Citizenship I…………………………………………………………………………………….64 II. An Alternative Civil Contract…………………………………………………..65 III. The Ontologico-Political Approach to Photography…………………………..69 IV. Politics and Ethics of Photography…………………………………………….75 V. Politics and Aesthetics of Photography………………………………………...81 VI. Rehabilitating Citizenship?.................................................................................91 VII. Final Remarks………………………………………………………………..101 Chapter 3 The Art(ifice) of Documentary as a Hospitable Space I…………………………………………………………………………………...104 II. The Documentary. An Impossible Definition?..................................................106 III. The (Non-Rigid) Modalities of Documentary………………………………..111 IV. Making Films Politically vs. Making Political Films………………………..119 V. Self-reflexivity as Politics. The (Blurred) Relation Between Spectator and Filmmaker………………………………………………………………………...127 VI. A Triadic Model of Documentary Film?..........................................................134 VII. An Expanded Transposition. Movement, Time and Sound…………………140 VIII. Final Remarks………………………………………………………………146 Chapter 4 Crossing Borders and Re-enacting Stories. The Case of Border Farm I…………………………………………………………………………………..149 II. A Dramatised Documentary…………………………………………………..151 5 III. The Triadic Model in Border Farm: The Relationship Between The Filmmaker and the Filmed Subjects…………………………………………………………….155 IV. The Triadic Model in Border Farm: The Relationship Between The Filmmaker and the Spectators…………………………………………………………………..166 V. The Triadic Model in Border Farm: The Relationship Between Spectators and Filmed Subjects……………………………………………………………………..171 VI. Final Remarks…………………………………………………………………..176 Chapter 5 Moments of Truth and the Engaged Spectator in Shout I……………………………………………………………………………………..177 II. Historical and Political Background of Shout…………………………………...178 III. A Documentary Between Fact and Fiction……………………………………..181 IV. Moments of Truth in Shout……………………………………………………..185 V. The Engaged Spectator…………………………………………………………..192 VI. The Spectator’s Degree of Engagement………………………………………...199 VII. Final Remarks………………………………………………………………….203 Chapter 6 Traces of Memory and Time. Affect and Politics in The Nine Muses I……………………………………………………………………………………205 II. Affect and the Expressive Dimension of Documentaries……………………...206 III. The Nine Muses and the Experience of Migration…………………………….211 IV. Form and Narrative in The Nine Muses……………………………………….218 V. Time, Memory and Sound……………………………………………………...220 VI. Affect and the Potential for Political Relationships…………………………...225 VII. Final Remarks………………………………………………………………...233
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