(Mis)representing climate mobilities

Lessons From Documentary Filmmaking

Bibliographic Data

ID3640201
AuthorsDavid Durand-Delacre (0000-0001-8847-6174)
Year2022
Volume48
Issue14
Pages3397-3415
Publication date2022-10-26
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNew Community (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0047-9586 • E-ISSN: 1469-9451
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/1369183x.2022.2066260
OpenAlexW4281385027
LanguageEN
Citations received13
References cited46

Climate migration discourses tend to misrepresent the complex realities and experiences of people whose lives are impacted by climate change. All too often, the images conjured are of inevitable, massive, and permanent cross-border movements, contributing to apocalyptic and securitised climate imaginaries that cast migration as a threat to western societies. Climate mobilities scholarship contradicts these assumptions as inaccurate and damaging, with empirical research demonstrating that climate change affects peoples' realities and experiences of mobilities in varied and multi-faceted ways. And yet, despite these well-established findings, overly simplistic climate migration narratives still abound. This poses a question: how can climate mobilities be better represented? To explore this question, I analyse six documentary films that portray island and coastal communities facing the possibility of migration. Methodologically, I use filmmaker interviews to contextualise the films' production. Drawing on mobilities theory, I show that understanding the representation process (filmmaking) requires close attention not just to the mobilities of people being represented, but also of those engaged in representation (the filmmakers) and the subsequent circulation of the representation (film) itself. Whose mobilities are prioritised in this process is crucial. Ultimately, I argue that climate mobilities scholarship can learn from the filmmakers' experiences

Argument (complex analysis · Art · Climate change · Film director · Filmmaking · Media studies · Mobilities · Movie theater · Narrative · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Scholarship · Social science · Sociology · Arctic and Russian Policy Studies · Climate Change, Adaptation, Migration · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law · Geology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access