Tallinn best paper award — Reel

Extremely happy to share that the manuscript “Women Autoethnographic Participatory Filmmaking at the Moroccan–Spanish Border: Counter-Narratives and Counter-Geographies in the Post-COVID-19 Era” received the Best Paper Award Emerging Scholar at the Diaspora, Migration and the Media - International and Intercultural Communication Sections Conference 'Beyond Borders: Creative Methods and Reflexive Approaches to Migration, Media, and Intercultural Dialogue' at Tallinn University in 2025.

The article, which is forthcoming in the special issue “Women’s Autobiographical Filmmaking” of Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media in summer 2026, is a solo-authored publication by Irene Gutiérrez. It analyses Adelante/Forward and Barco/Boat, two autoethnographic films co-created with Nora and Fati as part of the ABCeuta film collection. Through a film studies perspective, the article explores how these films expose the colonial and gendered dynamics embedded in the Spanish–Moroccan border regime, while proposing alternative narratives of mobility and belonging. By fostering mobile and transnational identities, the article shows how participatory filmmaking can generate counter-narratives and counter-geographies as a form of placemaking both on-site and on-screen.