Filmmaking project amplifies migrant voices

Filmmaker Dr Tasos Giapoutzis is working with migrant communities in Greece to create films around their experiences to amplify their voices and encourage understanding.

This ‘participatory filmmaking’ approach encourages participants – mostly from Afghanistan, Sudan and other countries from which refugees often arrive in Europe - to develop their storytelling skills around their everyday life.

Nostalgia and Belonging: Amplifying Migrant Voices through Participatory Filmmaking is funded through the University’s International Impact Fund 2025–26.

Working in partnership with Northern Lights Aid (NLA) a non-governmental organisation in Greece, the project delivered a series of filmmaking workshops for migrants and refugees, supporting participants to create short films exploring themes of displacement, belonging and the meaning of home.

“The project builds directly on my research and filmmaking practice, which focuses on themes of nostalgia, displacement, and migration.” said Dr Giapoutzi from Essex’s Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies.

“I’ve previously worked with refugee communities through film, including my feature documentary Quiet Life and my ongoing docufiction project Mnemonic Muse. This project extends that work into a more participatory and community-focused context.”

The workshops focused on collaborative storytelling and creative expression, encouraging participants to document their own lived experiences and perspectives. Alongside filmmaking skills, the project aims to develop a sustainable participatory filmmaking model which partner organisations can continue using in future community work.

The films produced through the project will be screened locally in Greece as part of a wider programme of public engagement activity, helping bring migrant voices and experiences to broader audiences.

Dr Giapoutzis said the response to the project so far has been overwhelmingly positive.

“Initial conversations with the NGO Northern Lights Aid (NLA) and potential participants have been very positive, with strong interest in the creative and storytelling aspects of the project,” he explained.

NLA is based in Kavala, Greece, supporting displaced communities and vulnerable local residents through long-term, community-based initiatives.

The project also reflects themes explored in Dr Giapoutzis’ teaching at Essex, particularly around socially engaged filmmaking and the relationship between cinema and lived experience.

“It connects closely to my teaching, particularly modules such as Film Festivals and film production modules, where we explore filmmaking as both a creative and socially engaged practice,” he said.

“There is also potential to bring elements of this work into teaching in the future.”

By combining filmmaking, community engagement and research, Nostalgia and Belonging highlights how creative practice can help foster dialogue, visibility and connection, while giving participants the opportunity to tell their own stories in their own voices.