REF2014 Impact Case Study based on this project rated 4*
Professor Berghahn's impact case study "Representing Migration and Cultural Diversity in European Film(making)" was "judged to offer and demonstrate outstanding elements of impact" by the REF sub-panel.
Over the past eight years, Daniela Berghahn and the Network team have undertaken extensive research into the (self-)representation of migrant and diasporic communities in European cinema as Principal Investigator of a collaborative Research Network and through her individual research on diasporic families in contemporary European cinema (http://www.farflungfamilies.net). Through the creation of various platforms of knowledge exchange, this research has enhanced awareness of diasporic filmmaking amongst industry stakeholders and the cinema-going public and shaped cultural life. It has also led to the foundation of an audio-visual development programme, BABYLON, which has, in turn, supported film projects of ethnic minority filmmakers with a migratory background. Between 2007 and 2013, BABYLON provided workshop-based training for over one hundred filmmakers. Eight BABYLON alumni have succeeded in getting their films into production and theatrical distribution in the UK, continental Europe and further afield as well as winning awards on the international festival circuit.
Between 2007 and 2013, BABYLON provided training and support to over one hundred competitively selected filmmakers through targeted film development workshops at film festivals in Berlin, Rotterdam, Locarno, Cannes and elsewhere. BABYLON has received funding and support from the British Council, Skillset, Film Fonds Wien and the EU Media Mundus Programme. To date eight films by BABYLON alumni have been completed. They have also won a number of prestigious awards at international film festivals including Sundance, the Berlin International Film Festival, Raindance, Karlovy Vary, Toronto, Moscow and Mumbai. So far eight films have been released in cinemas and have received extensive press coverage in leading newspapers such as The Guardian, Le Monde, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Zeit and the trade press (Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Sight and Sound etc.). In particular films about (diasporic) families, including My Brother the Devil (2012), Kuma (2012) and Son of Babylon (2009) have been able to cross over into the mainstream, arguably because, as Berghahn has demonstrated in Outputs (referenced 1 and 6), family narratives elicit a sense of recognition and identification with the ‘other’ and, therefore, have possessed the capacity to build bridges across cultures. Son of Babylon was Iraq’s nomination for the Academy Awards in 2010 and was distributed in nine territories. Kuma premiered at the International Berlin Film Festival in 2012 and has since been released in cinemas in eight countries including Austria, Germany, Spain, the UK and France, where it was distributed with 60 prints under the title Une seconde femme, attracting 36,710 viewers.
Posted by Daniela Berghahn on 21 May 2015 •