Burn the Sea / And We Will Throw the Sea Behind You

Cinema Project presents two feature-length films in the experimental-documentary genre that have come out of France in the past year and that take on the topic of immigration from the Middle East to Europe. An international crisis and daily news item, the situation is large, complex, and for those embarking on the journey, dangerous and intensely personal. Burn The Sea (screening on November 1) uses co-director Maki Berchache’s own experience leaving Tunisia after the 2011 Jasmine Revolution as an entry point for discussing the experience of other North African migrants, or harragas, who attempt to find refuge in Europe. In And We? Will ?Throw The Sea Behind? You (screening on November 5) the collectively made work tells the intertwining stories of several migrants who travel from their homes in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Morocco to a Greece in crisis and the chaotic streets of Istanbul, Turkey. These so-called “buffer zones,” however, highlight the intricacies and realities of how European law and policies can further complicate and disrupt the lives of migrants.

NOVEMBER 1ST: Burn The Sea/Brûle la mer by Nathalie Nambot and Maki Berchache
[France, 2014, 35mm, color, sound, 75 min.]

NOVEMBER 5TH: And? We? Will ?Throw The Sea Behind? You?/?Et Nous jetterons la mer derrière vous by Noémi Aubry, Jeanne Gomas, Clément Juillard, and Anouck Mangeat
[France, 2014, DCP, color, sound, 72 min.]