Transnational Identities in Galician Documentary Film: Alberte Pagán's Bs. As. and Xurxo Chirro's Vikingland

Abstract

What is Galician cinema? Should any film set in Galicia be considered as Galician or should this label be restricted to those films spoken in Galician and shot by local filmmakers? In order to bridge the economic constrains that lie behind this dichotomy, many young directors have embraced digital filmmaking and moved towards the non-fiction field, producing a set of works that address the Galician Diaspora from a clearly subjective perspective. Identity has thus become one of the main topics of films such as 'Bs. As.' (Alberte Pagán, 2006), 'Vikingland' (Xurxo Chirro, 2011) or 'Pettring' (Eloy Domínguez Serén, 2013). They all put the migratory phenomenon into a transnational context in both thematic and formal terms. The following analysis of their mise-en-scène strategies aims to explain the way these filmmakers have set a new pattern for Galician cinema in which the global helps to depict the local.