Refugee Crisis’ and the Power of Visual Representations: a Study of Different Portrayals of Refugees in Documentary Film
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Narratives of the ‘Refugee Crisis’ and the Power of Visual Representations: A Study of Different Portrayals of Refugees in Documentary Film MA Thesis in European Studies - Identity and Integration track Graduate School for Humanities Universiteit van Amsterdam Author: Alina-Ramona Bejan Student number: 10792589 Main Supervisor: Dr. Guido Snel Second Supervisor: Prof. dr. Joep Leerssen June, 2020 Total Word count: 20,963 2 Table of Contents Abstract 6 Chapter 1 Introduction 7 Chapter 2 Methodology 11 Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework 13 3.1 The Refugee 13 3.2 The Subaltern 16 3.3 Media Theories 18 3.3.1 Agenda Setting and Framing Theory 18 3.3.2 Mediation and Mediatisation 19 3.4 Visual Representations 20 3.5 Refugees in the Media 25 3.6 Numbness and Compassion Fatigue 26 3.7 The Spectacle of the World and the Politics of Pity 28 3.8 The Documentary 29 Chapter 4 Visual Representations of Refugees in Documentary Film 33 4.1 Introduction 33 4.2 Fire at Sea 33 4.2.1 Short Introduction 33 4.2.2 Semiotic Analysis 33 4.2.3 Narrative Structure Analysis 38 4.2.4 Contextual Analysis 40 4.2.5 Mise-en-scène Analysis 41 4.2.6 Camera Work 44 4.2.7 Editing and Sound 47 4.2.8 Production Contexts 48 4.2.9 Refugees’ Self-Representation 48 3 4.2.10 Reflection 50 4.3 Human Flow 52 4.3.1 Short Introduction 52 4.3.2 Semiotic Analysis 54 4.3.3 Narrative Structure Analysis 58 4.3.4 Contextual Analysis 61 4.3.5 Mise-en-scène Analysis 61 4.3.6 Camera Work 64 4.3.7 Editing and Sound 68 4.3.8 Production Contexts 68 4.3.9 Representation of Refugees and Refugees’ Self-Representation 68 4.3.10 Reflection 71 4.4 Refuge 75 4.4.1 Introduction 75 4.4.2 Technique 76 4.4.3 Narrative Analysis 78 4.4.4 Production Contexts 80 4.4.5 Refugees’ Self-Representation 80 Chapter 5 Discussion 81 5.1 Brief Comparison of the Three Documentaries 81 5.2 Narratives 82 5.3 Interrelation Between Text and Image 83 5.4 The Refugee – a Voiceless Subaltern and a Suffering Other 84 Chapter 6 Conclusion 86 Filmography 89 Bibliography 89 4 List of Figures1 1 ‘A Four-Dimensional Conceptualization of the Mediatisation of Politics’ 20 2 Samuele with his slingshot, training his lazy eye 34 3 The setting of the film: the island Lampedusa 35 4 The Mediterranean Sea seen from one of Lampedusa’s cliff coasts 36 5 Samuele on his father’s boat, feeling seasick 37 6 The title of the film as it appears at the end written in the symbolical colours: red (for fire) and blue (for water/sea) 38 7 Dr. Bartolo getting emotional while talking about the gravity of the situation 40 8 The room of Zia Maria, Pippo’s aunt 42 9 Migrants remembering their exodus, sharing their testimony, and giving thanks to God 43 10 Close-up on a migrant’s face 45 11 Medium shot of Samuele and his father 45 12 Long shot of ship 490, the Cigala Fulgosi and its helicopter preparing for flight 46 13 High-angle shot: view from the helicopter showing the vastness of the sea in comparison to the tiny boat of migrants 46 14 Low-angle shot: perspective on the sky 47 15 Ai’s installation of life jackets used by refugees draped around the pillars of Berlin’s Konzerthaus in 2016. Potograph: Kay Nietfeld/EPA 53 16 The film poster taken from its official Facebook page 55 17 On-screen text 55 1 Unless stated otherwise, all images are screenshots of scenes from the three films analysed: Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi, 2016), Human Flow (Ai Weiwei, 2017), and Refuge (Matthew K. Firpo, 2016). 5 18 Fragment of a famous Syrian poem 56 19 Weiwei having a haircut 57 20 Weiwei giving a haircut 57 21 Girls talking about the difficulties of living in Gaza 59 22 Group of migrants clapping and singing 60 23 Mahmoud and Weiwei exchanging passports 60 24 Ismatollah Sediqi telling Weiwei about his family 61 25 A Kurd man sitting next to what is left of his house after the Turkish military’s crackdown in 2015 62 26 Interview with Diana Firas, Princess of Jordan 62 27 Two brothers crying in the agitation of a night 63 28 Discarded life jackets 63 29 Medium close-up: the subject is framed from the shoulders up 64 30 Medium shot of a woman in a tent 65 31 Full shot of mother and child 65 32 Long shot in Iraq 66 33 Extreme long shot in Iraq 66 34 Low-angle shot of the Hungarian agents 67 35 High-angle shot 67 36 On-screen text 72 37 The US/Mexico wall 72 38 Dead body lying on the outskirts of Mosul, Iraq 74 39 One of the refugees interviewed, single mother of two daughters 77 40 Drone shot of Homs in ruins and on-screen text 77 41 The migrants’ words as they appear on a beautiful shot of the sea 78 42 The image that appears while the Mayor of Lesvos speaks of hope 78 6 Abstract This thesis discusses the meaning and the forms of representation, as well as self- representation, in relation to refugees. Representation can take the form of text, speech, photographs, TV news – all shared by the (social) media, as well as films and documentaries. When examining a representation, it is crucial to look at who is representing, who is being represented, what is the purpose of the representation, and how is the representation constructed. Using various media theories, this thesis suggests that representations are constructed or regulated in order to fit a political agenda and to create a separation between ‘us’ (Western/European audience) and ‘them’ (the ‘Others’). This consequently leads to a lack of interest in the events and tragedies that are happening ‘there’ and to a spectacle of distant suffering. Moreover, employing Spivak’s theory of the subaltern, this thesis establishes that the refugee is a silenced victim, deprived of any agency. While refugee voices are very rarely heard in the media, documentary films are more likely to allow refugees to speak for themselves in front of the camera. This thesis observes that voice and voicelessness have a big impact on representations, namely speaking or not speaking subjects create different representations and can influence a film’s narrative. Specifically, a refugee’s self- representation is more likely to arouse empathy in the public, while a representation of voiceless refugees is more prone to cause compassion fatigue. Keywords: (refugee) representation, (refugee) self-representation, refugee crisis, documentary, compassion fatigue, distant suffering. 7 Chapter 1 Introduction According to the data provided by UNHCR, there are 70.8 million forcibly displaced people worldwide, out of which 41.3 million are internally displaced people, 25.9 million refugees, and 3.5 million asylum-seekers.2 The same source states that over half of the 25.9 million refugees have not yet reached the age of 18 and that this is the highest number of refugees ever recorded.3 2015 has brought the worst refugee crisis in recent times with more than 3,770 migrants dying while trying to cross the Mediterranean, aiming to reach their destination: Europe.4 Media performed a crucial role in framing the events of 2015-16, which were phrased as the European ‘refugee/migration crisis,’ being the main source of information for both European citizens and policymakers. Wright argues that ‘[t]he visual representation of refugees plays an essential, yet neglected, role in forming the stereotype of “the refugee”.’5 In the news, the refugees were spoken about, but their own voices were rarely heard. This led to depicting the refugee as a silent victim. Pictures of refugees abounded in media in 2015 and in the years to follow and it is unlikely that by now, someone has not come across such a picture. This means that most, if not all of us, know what the refugee crisis looks like in pictures, but do we know how this crisis is perceived by those migrants themselves? Do we see what they see? While we have seen numerous portrayals of refugees and their tragedies from afar, as they were depicted in images, how many individual stories have we heard of? Whereas many pictures of refugees appeared in newspapers, on social media, on television, not much information was provided about who these people were. Based on the framing theory, media depictions can significantly affect public opinions and attitudes towards immigration.6 Besides that, media is constantly creating 2 United Nations, ‘Figures at a Glance,’ UNHCR, accessed June 4, 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/figures-at-a-glance.html. 3 Ibid. 4 IOM, ‘Over 3,770 Migrants Have Died Trying to Cross the Mediterranean to Europe in 2015,’ accessed June 4, 2020, https://www.iom.int/news/over-3770-migrants-have-died-trying-cross- mediterranean-europe-2015. 5 Terence Wright, ‘Moving Images: The Media Representation of Refugees,’ Visual Studies 17, no. 1 (2002): 53. 6 For more information on this, check Chauzy, Jean-Philippe and Gervais Appave, ‘Communicating effectively about migration,’ in Reporting at the Southern borders: Journalism and public debates on immigration in the US and the EU, edited by Giovanna Dell’Orto and Vicki L. Birchfield (New York: Routledge, 2014), 62-72. 8 and reproducing frames through which they are emphasising certain aspects of an event, while omitting others.7 It has been observed that media coverage of the refugee crisis tends to omit direct representation of individual immigrants.8 By the time of the publication of the Refugees Reporting project (2017), only 21% of the news on asylum and migration referenced a refugee or a migrant, and out of that 21%, only 40% of the published articles actually quoted them directly.9 In this sense, these migrants were not given a voice to represent themselves.