Kinotopias
Regular price
€102.99
A01=Irene Gutierrez-Torres
A01=Kevin Smets
A01=Lennart Soberon
A01=Silvia Almenara-Niebla
Author_Irene Gutierrez-Torres
Author_Kevin Smets
Author_Lennart Soberon
Author_Silvia Almenara-Niebla
Category=ATFA
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eq_bestseller
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
Film
film activism
Film and borders
Film and identity
Film and politics
forthcoming
Migration and film
space and place
Product details
- ISBN 9781399536653
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 31 Jul 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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Combining original research with insights from social sciences, philosophy and film theory, it argues that film can effectively capture both material and socio-cultural dimensions of borders and their underlying tensions. From popular cinema using border surveillance optics to militant and amateur filmmaking by borderlanders, Kinotopias: Film, Place and Belonging in a Bordered World traces diverging strategies that use film to enforce or overcome borders, demonstrating how film can become a political instrument for belonging. Introducing the concept of debordering film, the book urges a rethinking of how film is made, studied and understood, foregrounding neglected forms, voices and spatial experiences.
Through an ambitious conceptual framework stemming from research on highly politicised borders in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Kinotopias makes a strong case for the social and political power of film as a tool of resistance and reimagination.
Kevin Smets is Associate Professor in Media and Culture at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), where he co-directs the research group ECHO: Media, Culture & Politics. He has previously published Film: Een geschiedenis (2022) and co-edited the SAGE Handbook of Media and Migration (2020). Lennart Soberon is a postdoctoral researcher at the Reel Borders project at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and artistic coordinator of KASKcinema (Ghent). His film Dragon’s Teeth (2024) won the Best Short Documentary Award at Galway Film Fleadh. He is the co-founder of cinephile platform Kinoautomat. Irene Gutiérrez-Torres is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M). Her artistic and academic work critically engages with migration and border dynamics through participatory filmmaking. Silvia Almenara-Niebla is a Ramón y Cajal senior research fellow at the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) and an affiliated researcher at ECHO: Media, Culture & Politics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium). She has published in various international journals and received research awards on these topics.
