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Lights, camera, impact: “Our Homes” documentary by CIVIS students ready for the big screen

24 September 2025
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What does “home” really mean? Is it a place, a feeling, a memory? Through poignant testimonials from Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland, this documentary invites you to discover personal stories about home, belonging, and the transformation of urban spaces.
© UNIL

As part of the student projects supported by the CIVIS Alliance, the documentary “Our Homes”  was inspired by the 2024 CIVIS BIP "PostRacial Transmodernities: Afro-European Relations, Mediterranean Trajectories & Intercultural Reciprocities". The film offers a sensitive, transnational exploration of the concept of “home”:

We have noticed that one often does not reflect on the concept of home until one experiences displacement. Whether due to migration, political upheaval, personal choices, or unforeseen circumstances, the idea of home becomes central when it is disrupted or lost".

The project is the result of  combined effort of four students from different countries and backgrounds, who chose to share their knowledge and skills to build bridges between communities with respect for diversity of perspectives. 

Through personal stories filmed in Lausanne, Berlin, and Brussels, the producers examine the links between migration, hospitality, identity, and belonging. The documentary invites us to reflect collectively on what it means to “inhabit” a place and how this relationship evolves over time and space.

We hope through the screenings and the student-local community discussions, our audience will join us on this journey to better understand our shared spaces and strengthen our communities".

MEET THE PRODUCTION TEAM

The screening calendar

The production took place between April - July, while the screening events and the discussion with the students, actors of the civil society and the academia take place in Athens, Brussels and Lausanne in September and October 2025:

  • UNIL: 30 September 30, 17:00 - Vortex, Nucléo (followed by a discussion with the producers)
  • NKUA: 4 October, 20:00 – “Iris” cinema 
  • ULB: 16 October,  19:00 – Coin Culture (ULB Solbosch Campus)

The project is primarily addressed to the student and staff members of the universities of the CIVIS Alliance. Actors of civil society and other communities the universities are part of are also welcomed to the screenings.

Curious about student-led projects?

Student-led projects are pivotal to CIVIS and strengthen the Alliance's ability to offer co-created activities that will foster a strong, transnational community of students within CIVIS. Activities can include (but are not limited to) community service projects, civic hackathons, public forums/ debates, civic education clubs, conferences, student-led community research projects or cultural/ social events. Find out more!

The French version of the story is available un UNIL's website. 

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