“Paper Borders”: A collaborative documentary by young newcomers in Belgium.

This documentary was co-created during a 6-month visual ethnography in a school for recently arrived refugees in Molenbeek, Brussels. The film is part of a doctoral research project in which a group of participants intensively collaborated with a researcher and an independent filmmaker on the subject of arrival, reception and asylum procedures.
As a non-directive, non-extractivist methodology, this participatory film project offers a unique understanding of young peoples’ experiences and narratives related to issues that are considered important to them. The film derives from an intense collaboration between the participants, the school team, the researcher and the filmmaker. The film is scripted and experimentally filmed by the participants and facilitated by the researcher and filmmaker. During this process (visual) storytelling lead to the storylines of the film while at the same time thinking about the films’ storylines lead to a collective process of storytelling.