Résumé

Migration issues have long been present in documentary film, whether as a means of reflecting on the socio-economic impact of human displacement, or in autobiographical narratives in which filmmakers in exile or diaspora situations seek to understand their own identities, between memories of their former homeland and integration into the dynamics of their current territory of residence. The discussion of processes related to human displacement - voluntary or forced - has become urgent in the present and requires a reflection that goes beyond news reports. As an offshoot of a research project, our proposal in this paper is to look at how aspects of migration are presented in documentary films, especially those produced in the context of Latin American and African countries, with the aim of analyzing how the narrative strategies used can configure new ways of articulating memory and history. As examples, we highlight the documentaries Tempestad (2016) by Mexican filmmaker Tatiana Huezo and the documentaries FotogrÁFRICA (Tila Chitunda, 2016) and Sonhos Exilados (Paulo Chavonga, 2023), both produced by Angolan artists. While the former tells the story of two women who suffer the consequences of human trafficking in Mexico, the latter presents the daily life of African immigrants trying to survive in Brazil. All these productions allow us to get to know the stories of several social actors who experience the effects of migration, but also present stories that cross the filmmaker’s stories, allowing for the creation of new approaches and narrative strategies in cinema.