A series of screenings and events will look at the stories behind modern day migration at venues across south Cornwall this September.

The School of Film and Television at Falmouth University will host a season of films across in partnership with the Institute of Contemporary Arts, with screenings at The Poly in Falmouth, Truro Plaza Cinema Truro, Newlyn Filmhouse, and the Penryn Campus.

The ICA season Crossings: Stories of Migration reflects on cinema’s potential to interrogate the damaging ways in which migration is often framed. Including documentary and fiction features, the programme emphasises the complexity and often painful human reality behind the histories of migration that have long shaped the nation.

Moving away from polarised ideas of us and them, home and abroad, and labels like refugee, asylum seeker, and migrant, Crossings looks at the lives behind these words. What does it mean to live across borders, and to represent these lives today? What new cinematic languages and tools do we need to tell these stories?

Highlights include: The opening screening at Newlyn Filmhouse on September 6 of the Oscar-nominated Fire At Sea with a panel discussion; Cannes Grand Jury Prize winner Blackboards on Wednesday, September 13, which will kick off a series of 35mm screenings at the Plaza Cinema; and the poetic documentary The Nine Muses from legendary British filmmaker John Akomfrah on Wednesday, September 20, at The Poly.

Dr Laura Canning of the School of Film and Television said: “This is a fantastic chance to see some award-winning and thought-provoking films on the big screen, and to reflect on what migration means and how it can best be represented. We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to bring the season to Newlyn and Truro as well as Falmouth, and to support the ICA with this important project right across the UK”.

Nico Marzano, ICA film programmer and Crossings season curator, said: “ICA is absolutely delighted to deliver this season in association with the School of Film and Television at Falmouth University, and to engage, together with their students, with Cornwall communities to discuss some of the biggest issues of our times. Crossings offers viewers aesthetically engaging films with original storytelling approaches, and hopes both to challenge the categorisations we apply regarding migration, and to contribute to an increase in empathy for those connected to these issues”.

Fire At Sea will be at Newlyn Filmhouse at 8pm on Wenesday, September 6, Blackboards will be at the The Plaza Cinema on

Wednesday, September 13 at 8.30pm, The Nine Muses will be at The Poly on Wednesday, September 20 at 6pm and The War Show will be at The Poly on Wednesday, September 27 at 5pm.

Screenings of Alambrista! and Stranger in Paradise will be held at the School of Film and Television’s own cinema with dates and times to be confirmed.

For further information see crossings2017.co.uk