Border Mediascapes

Name: Border Mediascapes
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ISBN: 9781517918910

Cinematic Itineraries at the Edge of Europe

Francesco Zucconi

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English

University of Minnesota Press
03 June 2026

Documentary movies & films; Media studies; Migration, immigration & emigration; Human geography

How the cinematic gaze reveals the hidden operations of border zones

Examining a variety of documentary films made along the borders of Europe since the turn of the twenty-first century, Border Mediascapes takes a cinematic eye to the technologies employed in governing spatial movement. Working at the intersections of social sciences, political theory, contemporary media, and cinema aesthetics, this book expands our understanding of the border as not just a static political boundary inscribed on a map but a complex, dynamic network of human and nonhuman agents.

Francesco Zucconi asserts that contemporary borders are environments defined by media: a perpetually shifting set of interactions between physical bodies and sensors, surveillance cameras, satellites, mapping programs, digital signage, and cellular devices. Analyzing documentaries filmed by or in collaboration with migrants, Border Mediascapes demonstrates how cinema can be used to reveal the otherwise unseen apparatuses that facilitate systematized practices of recognition, expulsion, and erasure.

As he details the ways specific border technologies measure and identify individuals as part of the larger project of territorial control, Zucconi illustrates the effectiveness of cinema for capturing the entanglement of geopolitics and biopolitics. Viewing the cinematic perspective as simultaneously analytical, critical, and complicit with the new technological frontier, Zucconi shows how the medium can deepen our understanding of borders as sites of power, resistance, and resilience.

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By: Francesco Zucconi
Imprint: University of Minnesota Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 216mm, Width: 140mm, Spine: 10mm
Weight: 255g
ISBN: 9781517918910
ISBN 10: 151791891X
Pages: 200
Publication Date: 03 June 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Contents Acknowledgments Introduction: Border Mediascapes 1. Hot and Cold Borders 2. Operational Frontiers 3. Archaeology of the Fortress 4. Embodied Borders and Customized Bodies 5. Spectrology of the Border 6. Participation and Citizenship Conclusion: Filming at the Border Filmography Notes Index

Francesco Zucconi is associate professor of film and media theory at the Iuav University of Venice and is author of several books, including Displacing Caravaggio: Art, Media, and Humanitarian Visual Culture.

Reviews for Border Mediascapes: Cinematic Itineraries at the Edge of Europe

""Through the astute analysis of key documentaries shot in various European border zones over the past twenty years, Border Mediascapes offers a compelling reflection on the often-hidden workings of contemporary borders. In the process, it provides an original contribution to scholarly discussions of global migrations and the technologies of border management while also acknowledging the potent legacies of colonialism.""--Áine O'Healy, author of Migrant Anxieties: Italian Cinema in a Transnational Frame ""This is a strong book that explores the idea of border mediascapes--a useful and insightful term. Demonstrating deep knowledge of European migrancy, Francesco Zucconi offers an original and thoughtful perspective on a broad cluster of documentary films and artworks, resulting in an impressive and sustained act of curation.""--Matthew Fuller, Goldsmiths, University of London