Paper short abstract:

How can media-anthropology contribute to critical evaluations of production, presentation and circulation of short films, beings produced in workshops by minor refugees? Incorporating sociological practice theories, presumed positions on representation of the self and the other will be evaluated.

Paper long abstract:

Since 2015, mass migration of refugees is regularly represented as threat by German media . As one consequence, various institutions and organizations have established film-workshop formats for minor refugees in order to address the problem of invisibility by collaboratively producing audio-visual media . But what exactly can be identified as constituting agendas of these initiatives? How can media-anthropology contribute to a critical evaluation of processes such as production, presentation and circulation in the context of researching such collaboratively produced short-films? In my talk, I will give insights into my research on workshop formats, that aim for participation, integration and empowerment. Encountering participants and coordinators, I found myself at crossroads between socially constructed categories which - as prior works have shown - depend on historically grown traditions of thought. Promoting ideas of empowerment, inclusion, equality and media-accessibility, coordinators co-construct subordinate positions of their "clients". Incorporating sociological practice and performance theories , these presumed positions and their contribution to (self-)perception and representation, will be questioned.