Research Information System
Transnational Screens, vol.16, no.2, pp.161-179, 2025 (ESCI, Scopus)
This article explores how participatory filmmaking (PF), a collaborative method involving a group of people in the creation of films, can activate archives as alternative spaces of knowledge and representation in borderland contexts. By introducing the concept of cross-border archiving, an archival practice consisting of circulating materials across national borders, it examines the intersections of archives, filmmaking, and epistemologies through three PF workshops held in Derry (Irish border), Ceuta (Moroccan-Spanish border) and Adana (Turkish-Syrian border) between 2022 and 2023. These workshops brought together 47 co-researchers, who activated archives of different origins through cross-border partnerships, collaborations and circulation. From this analysis, four distinct modes of cross-border archiving emerged: cross-institutional, community-based, activist, and artist-led. In addition, this study also reflects on the ethical and methodological challenges encountered, including questions of representation, access, authorship, and the persistence of silences and absences. By evaluating both the potential and limitations of these modes, this article proposes cross-border archiving as a methodological and epistemological intervention that foregrounds the fluidity of both borders and archives, offering a critical tool for rethinking territoriality, belonging, and historical agency through participatory archival work carried out beyond the confines of nation-state frameworks.