Reel Borders: At the Edges of Europe – screening and Q&A

What constitutes a border? Is it a line in the land, a fortified wall, a digital passport, or perhaps a figment of our imagination? The last decades have seen a rapid expansion of borders throughout Europe. It is perhaps because of borders’ ubiquity that we sometime forget that they are still the product of human invention. After all, before a border is built, it needs to first be conceived.

The Reel Borders project (VUB) studies the symbolic properties of borders by looking at how borders are imagined through film. During this screening, we will dwell past dwells past six different border lines, in the process wandering past questions of nationhood, identity, and autonomy at Europe’s periphery. From the militarized fences of Ceuta and watchtowers Cyprus to the ghosts of the Irish border and Syrian memories of displacement, these films chart out a fictional cartography in dialogue with the demarcations that shape our world. Afterwards, we plan a short Q&A with some of the film makers, who will join us in Ghent.

Organised with the support of the European Research Council (ERC) and in collaboration with Amal.