Poetics of Displacement in the Essay Film

Abstract

This article investigates the movements of deterritorialization in cinema, analyzing how experiences of exile, migration, and diaspora reverberate within the diegetic space of narratives. Through the film A Media Voz (2019) by Cuban filmmakers Heidi Hassan and Patricia Pérez, we reflect on the subjective, historical, and political dimensions of these displacements and their inscription in cinematic form. By putting autoethnographic practice into perspective (Russell 1999), we examine how the directors stage their subjectivities and construct a sense of otherness in the interstices of the fragmented self. The article proposes a rapprochement between contemporary “accented cinemas” (Naficy 2001) and the essay film, highlighting how the essayistic form operates in a “third space”, open to the fractures and transformative processes of migrant and diasporic identities. "In this context, we propose the concept of displacement landscapes to reflect on affective geographies that emerge from the subjective inscription of bodies, voices, and gestures of those who inhabit in-between spaces — whether symbolic, linguistic, or social.