Kevin Smets
kevinsmets.bsky.social
Kevin Smets
@kevinsmets.bsky.social
Professor media & culture at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Teaches film history. ERC project www.reelborders.eu. Film, migration, Turkey, borders, media. Research group ECHO: Media, Culture & Politics
⚡ Out now: Javnost-The Public special issue "The far-right and the politics of films, series and videogames", co-edited w @benjamindecleen.bsky.social, Omran Shroufi, Joke Bauwens & me. Full issue here www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjav20/3...
October 24, 2025 at 6:50 AM
New papers from the @erc.europa.eu Reel Borders project: on "Borderwork as artistic practice" in Geopolitics + on participatory filmmaking in Sensate.

▶️ doi.org/10.1080/1465...
▶️ sensatejournal.com/rethinking-a...

By stellar team Lennart Soberon @silviamaresia.bsky.social & Irene Gutiérrez-Torres
September 3, 2025 at 6:55 AM
Sending this manuscript off to @edinburghup.bsky.social today! In a few months we'll hopefully be able to share the whole thing. Great team work with Lennart Soberon, Irene Gutiérrez-Torres and @silviamaresia.bsky.social #ReelBorders #kinotopias @erc.europa.eu
July 16, 2025 at 8:57 AM
More than 10 years after my first @scmstudies.bsky.social conference in Boston, I'm so glad to be going to the next conference in Chicago. Looking forward to presenting Reel Borders research & reconnecting with the SCMS community 🎬
November 28, 2024 at 6:36 PM
Studying migration? This new Handbook of Research Methods in Migration offers a range of hands-on approaches for the field. I contributed a chapter on visual methods. Find out more here: www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap-o... (the chapter is #openaccess).
October 17, 2024 at 7:02 AM
Together with Lennart Soberon, I published a new paper on border films. We analyse 43 films connected to the Irish border and develop a typology of different border mobilities. Read the full paper, open access, in the Irish Studies Review, here: doi.org/10.1080/0967....
October 9, 2024 at 6:54 PM
Today I had the pleasure to present for the first time at the conference of the Radical Film Network. I presented work with Irene Gutiérrez on the use of archives in participatory filmmaking. Read more about the network here (radicalfilmnetwork.com). More info: reelborders.eu/RFN-2024-Con....
June 20, 2024 at 7:27 PM
The end of another semester of teaching #filmhistory. Thank you to Cinematek for hosting our classes & to a great, critical group of students.

Main lesson learned this year = bringing world politics into class is appreciated by students. See you next year for more film history! 🎬
May 22, 2024 at 1:01 PM
A highlight of my film history course: visiting the Royal Film Archive of Belgium and its restoration lab with the students. Beautiful moment face to face with the original Chantal Akerman #JeanneDielman negatives #filmhistory
March 28, 2024 at 7:44 AM
ABCeuta is online! This "alphabet of the border" of 26 short videos was made with 13 domestic workers who share their stories about lives affected by the border. On #WomensDay we share their stories & launch a petition. Find out more: abceuta.film. Sign the petition: www.change.org/p/por-favor-...
March 8, 2024 at 9:49 AM
New publication in Emotion, Space & Society. With Silvia Almenara-Niebla, we report on ethnographic fieldwork conducted on the Irish border, and develop the cineforum method, a participatory visual elicitation method using film. Summary and link: reelborders.eu/EmotionSpace...
February 5, 2024 at 8:24 AM
If you are in Brussels, you can explore the unexpected and rich histories of Belgian cinema, through 11 lectures and screenings. From February to May at Cinema RITCS. All information www.cinemaritcs.be/the-power-of.... I'll present animation film + "Taxandria" by Raoul Servais 🎦
January 26, 2024 at 1:36 PM
Refugee Hybrid Fiction. New #OpenAccess paper published with Giacomo Toffano in Crossings: Journal of Migration & Culture. Based a mapping of 98 cases, we argue for a politics of hybridity in media and migration that challenges conventional regimes of representation. Access: doi.org/10.1386/cjmc...
January 25, 2024 at 10:42 AM
How do films reflect physical and symbolic borders between communities? We explore this with students in Adana in our participatory filmmaking workshop on the Turkish-Syrian border. So exciting to see them in action and see stories emerge. More information on www.reelborders.eu
November 24, 2023 at 3:23 PM
As part of Reel Borders, we organise #cineforums to discuss border stories and memories. Here are some impressions of yesterday in Samandağ (Hatay), with the solidarity initiative started after the earthquake. Film, talking and LOTS of çay. More info on www.reelborders.eu
November 7, 2023 at 8:04 AM