Mariana Duarte is a researcher and filmmaker whose work examines depictions of migration and forced displacement in media and visual culture. She is completing a practice-based PhD at Edinburgh College of Art, University of Edinburgh, focusing on contemporary documentary representations of border crossings into Europe and Britain, particularly across the Mediterranean and English Channel. Combining close film analysis, participatory filmmaking and reflexive enquiry, her research addresses questions of positionality, authorship and the conditions that enable or constrain migrant-led filmmaking.
An Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), she brings academic enquiry and professional filmmaking experience to higher education teaching. Her wider work encompasses public engagement, curation and programming, alongside an interest in filmmaking as a research method.
A Berlinale Talents alumna, Mariana directed Headland (2024), commissioned by the Scottish Documentary Institute, which premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and won Best Mini-Doc at the 2025 Big Sky DocFest. Recent commissioned work includes human rights research for Ilinca Călugăreanu’s forthcoming feature documentary Anatomy of Indifference, supported by Screen Scotland and the Sundance Documentary Fund.
Research keywords: Media representations of migration; forced displacement; visual culture; documentary ethics; participatory filmmaking; visual methods; border representation; practice-based research; reflexivity.
| Migration Reasearch Hub ID: 6792 | |
| ORCID | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2831-4231 |
Expertise
Migration processes
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Migration drivers
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Migration forms
Migration consequences (for migrants, sending and receiving countries)
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Socio-cultural consequences
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Legal-political consequences
Migration governance
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Migration policy and law
Cross-cutting topics in migration research
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Migration research and theory
Disciplines
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Disciplines
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Subject Areas
Methods
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Other
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Qualitative research
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Types of study
Geographies
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Scope
Roles
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University of Edinburgh
University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
PhD Researcher
Research
A camera in the water: reframing the migrant image in documentary film
| Authors | Mariana Duarte |
| Year | 2024 |
| Journal Name | Screen | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |
Suggested Research
Psychosocial Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People Living in Portugal and Brazil—A Qualitative Study
| Authors | Henrique Pereira, Jéssica Pedro, Cindy Mendes, ... |
| Year | 2021 |
| Journal Name | Journal of Psychosexual Health | Taxonomy | View Taxonomy Associations |