Room to Stay

Room to Stay explores the possibilities of cinematic self-representation of transit migrants. Among other things a self-produced cinema spot which has developed as part of WIENWOCHE and challenges the usual ways of depicting migrants will be presented for the first time in the Schikaneder cinema.

The starting point of Room to Stay was a group discussion about Arabic and French language films dealing with the departure to and the transit through Europe.  Based on this, the project collective has produced its own film and video material, which, with counter images and narratives, challenges the usual, often monotonously similar, images and narratives about migration and asylum.

Over a period of several months an interview film of/with migrants, as well as a cinema spot, have resulted. Multi-lingual and many-voiced everyday experiences are narrated in the first person:
Enfin j'avais quitté le bled (Finally I just cleared out) collects conversations about setting off for, and travelling to and through Europe. The thirty-second cinema spot Voyage à l'inconnu deals with the journey into the unknown, the risks and stress.

As part of a presentation in the Schikaneder cinema (in co-operation with kinoki – Association for Audio-Visual Self-Determination and the film festival This Human World), the film activists report on the production process and discuss the associated media, linguistic, social and political translation process: "Without close listening and exact translation, a different point of view and understanding of the realities of life is, we believe, impossible".
As part of the group installation NoborderZone of the WIENWOCHE project Rebelodrom, the cinematic investigations of Room to Stay are linked with the one-man stage play "Revolution for Freedom of Movement" by Riadh Ben Ammar.