This research project aims to investigate the borders of contemporary Italy as media environments through the study of documentary films focused on such geographical and political areas.
With the processes of globalisation, migratory phenomena, and climate change, Europe and, in particular, Italy are paradoxically
facing what we can define as the “centrality of the border”, which cannot be conceived as a simple physical barrier between two or
more sovereign state territories but asks to be considered as a complex area, characterised both by the presence of control
technologies (such as surveillance cameras, radars and biometric detectors), and by peculiar geographical and environmental
conditions. In order to investigate the quality of such spaces – at once natural and technological – this project makes two concepts
work together: on the one hand, the idea of “borderscape” focuses on the thickness of the frontier – that is, the relational character
of such areas. On the other hand, the concept of “mediascape” identifies the capacity of technology to transform a place into a
space, but also the role of media performed by elements that belong to a territory (the sea conceived as a space of separation and
communication, the ability of a river to detach or connect two banks, the role of the edge assumed by a mountain, etc.).
From Ventimiglia to the coast of Lampedusa, from Trieste to the Alps, the project identifies a corpus of research in documentary
films shot on the borders of Italy since the beginning of the new millennium, comparatively considered within the Mediterranean and
European context. The main hypothesis is that documentary cinema can be considered in itself as a critical reflection on the Italian
“border mediascape”, an environment in which a network of human and non-human actors interact, giving rise to practices of
recognition, integration, reciprocal reconfiguration or expulsion.
The research will be developed starting with the mapping and analysis of films that are available in film libraries and festivals. The
project will be structured into three clusters:
1. CARTOGRAPHY: To produce a collection of documentary productions by both Italian (Gianfranco Rosi, Andrea Segre, Daniele
Gaglianone, Daniela Ricci, etc.) and foreign (Dagmawi Yimer, Jakob Brossmann, Michel Toesca, etc.) filmmakers, but also projects
carried out by participatory cinema labs and grassroots.
2. ANALYSIS: To study the ways in which filmmakers have imagined the border spaces of Italy over the last two decades.
3. THEORY: To produce a new paradigm in the conception of borders and thus to develop the theoretical perspective regarding the
geopolitics of environmental media.
The project proposes to develop the first unified framework for studying the forms of media interaction that define borderline
Ministero dell'Università e della Ricerca
MUR - BANDO 2022
spaces. At the same time, it contributes to the reflection on the relationship between the media and the environment as an
emerging topic on an international scale.