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Film short abstract

I’MPOSSIBLE follows five men who migrated to Europe and work in Almería's greenhouse industry, in southeast Spain. Through their testimonies, daily routines and the use of participatory filmmaking, the documentary depicts their life in informal settlements through their own voices.

Film synopsis

In a deeply polarized world where migration is often reduced to simplified and antagonistic narratives, I’MPOSSIBLE depicts migrants beyond both the humanitarian image of passive victims and the xenophobic image of criminals or threats.

Developed as part of a master’s project in Visual Ethnography, the film is grounded in participatory filmmaking practices that question representational authority and power relations embedded in migration images. By placing the camera in the hands of some participants and filming others in close collaboration, I’MPOSSIBLE foregrounds participant's agency and reflections. The film brings together scenes of everyday life, such as cooking and sharing a meal, with moments in which the protagonists speak for themselves, interview each other, express opinions and make decisions. Seen together, these moments present them as people who are not radically different from an European audience. By focusing on shared daily practices and visible agency, the film creates a sense of sameness and makes identification possible, something difficult to achieve when migrants are shown only as passive victims. In contrast to many documentaries on labour exploitation in Almería that, despite critical intentions, rely on hierarchical forms of representation, I’MPOSSIBLE challenges stereotypical images and creates more horizontal ways of telling migrant stories.

Aligned with the EASA 2026 theme, the film demonstrates how ethnographic and participatory cinema can open possibilities for dialogue, ethical engagement and collaboration. Moreover, the accompanying thesis expands this discussion by analyzing the power of ethnographic film and participatory methods to contest dominant migrant narratives in a context of media overexposure.