The Department of Media Culture at the College of Staten Island is inviting the campus community and the public to a special event, “Bringing Science and Artivism: Participatory Filmmaking in Borderlands,” on Monday, November 17, 2025, from 10am-12pm. in Building 1P, Room 223 (Media Culture Screening Room).
The program features a film screening and Q&A with Professor Kevin Smets, Associate Professor of Media and Culture at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), and filmmaker and co-producer Irene Gutiérrez-Torres, an award-winning documentary filmmaker and researcher affiliated with Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid.
Together, Smets and Gutiérrez-Torres will present and discuss three short films emerging from participatory filmmaking workshops conducted in the Irish borderlands, the Moroccan-Spanish frontier, and the Turkish-Syrian border. The event will explore how film can serve as both a scientific tool and an act of “artivism”—bridging research, storytelling, and community engagement in contested spaces around the world.
Professor Smets’ work centers on media, migration, and the social and political dimensions of film and visual culture, while Gutiérrez-Torres’ practice investigates post-revolutionary and post-colonial environments through collaborative, community-based approaches.
This unique presentation offers a thought-provoking look at how participatory filmmaking can empower voices across borders and challenge audiences to rethink the relationship between art, activism, and knowledge production.
