Gran Canaria, 2022. Two years after the outbreak of the migratory emergency on the Canary Islands, a team of researchers of the Visual Sociology Group of the University of Genoa studying migration, borders and solidarity arrived on site to carry out a participatory ethnographic process.  

During the pandemic, due to the worsening of the already weak local economies of different western African countries (Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal), the temporary closure of Ceuta/Melilla and the consequent redefinition of the main migration routes towards Europe, the Atlantic Route towards the Canary Islands – which was relevant between the late 1990s and early 2000s – regained significance in undocumented migration towards Europe. The emergency management of this flow of people, which since 2020 has brought thousands of migrants on the shores of the Canary Islands, has continued for months and months, through improvised forms of reception in camps (‘Muelle de la verguenza’) and empty hotels (due to the pandemic crisis), until the establishment of special migrants’ reception centres. In this context, albeit in an ambivalent dimension, migrants break the frame on the public discourse concerning them as mere subjects in need of containment, regaining at least partial control of their time and opening up to a series of encounters with the emerging solidarity networks, searching a Mainland in their migration process.   

“Il Crollo” is a short documentary about the human and housing experience of the people displaced from their homes in Via Porro, following the collapse of the Morandi Bridge.

Georges Kouagang comes from Cameroon and he is a collaborator of the Visual Sociology Research Group. He is also an asylum seeker who arrived in Italy by sea, rescued by a SOS Mediterranée boat in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea and landed at the port of Pozzallo, Sicily.Several years after his arrival, Georges returned to Sicily with some researchers from the Laboratory of Visual Sociology. His testimony became “Si la terre tourne”.

Riski is a documentary based on the ethnographic work carried out by Luca Queirolo Palmas in Ceuta, Nador and Melilla, in 2018.

A short ethnographic documentary on the Calais makeshift camp.

A documentary based on an ethnographic work by Luca Giliberti, on the Italian-French border. (Italian language version)

A documentary based on an ethnographic work by Luca Giliberti, on the Italian-French border. (French language version)

An ethnofiction based on an ethnograhic work carried out by Luca Queirolo Palmas and Luisa Stagi. (Italian language version)

An ethnofiction based on the ethnographic work carried out by Luca Queirolo Palmas and Luisa Stagi. (French language version)

The story of Majid, who died following his injuries during the fall from the roof of the Center for Identification and Expulsion (CIE) of gradisca. A look at death in migration. A documentary part of Ottavia Salvador’s doctoral research.

An ethnofiction about dreams and daydreams of a group of students involved in the adult education program.

A documentary on educational models and practices in the schools of Genoa (Italy). 

A short documentary on stereotypes about gender relations, prostitution and sexual exploitation which shows the complex relationship between masculinity and femininity.

An ethnofiction by Jose Gonzalez Morandi on the forms of resistance and counter-narratives of immigrants from South-America in Spain.

A co-production of Laboratorio di Sociologia Visuale & Centro Studi Medì on the migrant integration process in a district in the Old Town of Genoa.

A view from the inside of an Italian state prison. Inmates talk about their views, wishes and forms of resistance.

A view on suburbs as spaces for cultural production and the role of music as a global lifestyle trend.

A sociological investigation documentary through an imaginary and internal journey to and from home. Luis Yépez’s life in Genoa: Ecuadorian migrant, boxer, and baker.

Almost entirely shot in Ecuador, Transportes is a travel diary and an overview of a country whose main source of income are the money transfer from Ecuadorians living abroad.

A path of visual research on the themes of the body, gender and sexual identity that starts from issues such as homophobia and transphobia, to get to deal with some fundamental rights that seem increasingly  threatened and questioned today.

The stories of nine young people, sons and daughters of migrants, who live in nine different European countries.

The story of the migration of a group of young people who travel from Ecuador to Italy to be reunited with their mothers.

The exploration of the meanings of work in the lives of a group of people who started work through the job placement and psychosocial rehabilitation services of Genoa City Council.