Francesco Zucconi, author of Border Mediascapes – Cinematic Itineraries at the Edge of Europe (University of Minnesota Press, 2026), will be in conversation with Emanuela Patti (Italian Studies, University of Edinburgh), Nicola Perugini (University of Edinburgh) and Luca Peretti (University of Cambridge) on Tuesday, 12th May at 17:30 at the Italian Institute of Culture in Edinburgh.
How the cinematic gaze reveals the hidden operations of border zones
Examining a variety of documentary films made along the borders of Europe since the turn of the twenty-first century, Border Mediascapes takes a cinematic eye to the technologies employed in governing spatial movement. Working at the intersections of social sciences, political theory, contemporary media, and cinema aesthetics, this book expands our understanding of the border as not just a static political boundary inscribed on a map but a complex, dynamic network of human and nonhuman agents.
Francesco Zucconi asserts that contemporary borders are environments defined by media: a perpetually shifting set of interactions between physical bodies and sensors, surveillance cameras, satellites, mapping programs, digital signage, and cellular devices. Analyzing documentaries filmed by or in collaboration with migrants, Border Mediascapes demonstrates how cinema can be used to reveal the otherwise unseen apparatuses that facilitate systematized practices of recognition, expulsion, and erasure.
As he details the ways specific border technologies measure and identify individuals as part of the larger project of territorial control, Zucconi illustrates the effectiveness of cinema for capturing the entanglement of geopolitics and biopolitics. Viewing the cinematic perspective as simultaneously analytical, critical, and complicit with the new technological frontier, Zucconi shows how the medium can deepen our understanding of borders as sites of power, resistance, and resilience.
Free entry, but booking required. Email rsvp.iicedimburgo@esteri.it to reserve a seat (please include the full names of all the guests in your party).
DOORS OPEN: 5:00 pm
EVENT STARTS: 5:30 pm
Please note that security checks will be in place on arrival.
The event will be in English.
Please note that photographs and footage will be taken throughout the event. These images and videos may be used for marketing, publicity, and other purposes, including on our website and social media channels. If you do not wish to have your image used, please inform the event organisers or contact eventi.iicedimburgo@esteri.it before the event.