Modes of Self-Representation in the Images Collectively Produced by Migrants in Lésbos Island: Natives of the New World

Natives of the New World is a short documentary film shot on cell phones by the Kino Mosaik collective, which was founded in Lesbos Island, Greece, in 2018. The migrants who were members of the collective tried to transform the period when they were stuck in Lesbos waiting for the decision on their asylum applications into a constitutive process. Kino Mosaik’s main goal was to oppose the passive, apolitical, and victimized migrant image created by mainstream media and many artistic representations. The collective thought that this was possible only from their perspective, and they made this film as an action against stereotypical representational systems. In the short documentary, not only are the difficult conditions that migrants have to deal with made visible but also the forms of collective resistance they have developed against them. This article will analyse Natives of The New World by comparing it with the representational tools it opposes.