Voices

Voices, a 40-minute practice-led documentary is by Dr Allan Njanji. The film explores how refugees can lead and shape their own narratives, offering an alternative to mainstream media portrayals.

Through interviews with people of lived refugee experience, Allan investigates the politics of voice, creative self-representation and the ethics of documentary-making. The project challenges the silencing or ventriloquising of refugees’ stories, placing participants’ agency, wellbeing and perspectives at the centre of the work.

Accompanied by a written thesis, the project reflects on the filmmaker’s positionality as a refugee, scholar and practitioner, and proposes a ‘refugee-centred’ mode of documentary-making. Voices demonstrates how creative practice can empower refugee communities, amplify diverse voices, and offer a meaningful alternative to dominant narratives in media and visual culture. Watch it below.

2023

Socially engaged creative practice

Collective members: Allan Njanji, Anna Ball