ENCOUNTER: Making Theatre and Film with First-Generation Migrants – Film Screening and Q&A

ENCOUNTER (30 minutes) is a collaborative documentary about PROJEKT ENCOUNTER, a community theatre programme for asylum seekers, refugees and first-generation migrants living in Kent. A Q&A with the film’s creative, producing and research team will follow the screening.

In 2024, the theatre company PROJEKT EUROPA (now PROJEKT UTOPIA) partnered with the School of Arts at the University of Kent to run PROJEKT ENCOUNTER, a 20-week programme of workshops. The programme has now run for three years, and the partners hope it will continue in 2027.

During the first edition, an all-migrant and refugee crew of Film and Drama staff, students and alumni from the School of Arts made a documentary about the project. The film follows the last three weeks of the programme, including the final two workshops and the closing performance in June 2024.

ENCOUNTER is openly self-reflexive. It shows its own processes on screen and takes up questions about the politics of making a film like this one. It asks two questions: how can shared creative experiences build community among multilingual migrants, refugees and asylum seekers? And how can applied theatre-makers and documentary filmmakers collaborate ethically with first-generation migrants?

The event is part of the seminar series ‘Methodological Roots and Routes on Migration Studies in Persistently Unsettling Times’.
 

Speakers

• Dr Margherita Laera (producer, ENCOUNTER) is Reader in Drama and Theatre and Deputy Head of the School of Arts and Architecture at the University of Kent. Her research looks at theatre’s relationship with migration, multilingualism and translation.
• Ismael Nchountsu Nsangou (participant, ENCOUNTER) is a third-year Drama BA student at the University of Kent. He first joined PROJEKT ENCOUNTER in 2024 and has taken part every year since.
• Dr Francisca Stangel (lead facilitator, PROJEKT ENCOUNTER) is a theatre-maker and Associate Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent. She co-creates performances and workshops with refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
• Dr Angie Varakis-Martin (producer, ENCOUNTER) is Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent. Her work on masked performance has recently extended into community and applied theatre.
  
   

Event Registration

The event is free and open to all, but registration is required. Please follow the link at the top of this page.

Image credit:CMDS