The research enquiry sought to explore and illuminate issues of migration in 20th century Europe in relation to questions of culture and identity.

Following a screening and presentation by Heath of From Scotland With Love (FSWL) at a Horizon 2020 event (2015), Heath was invited to apply the methodology and approach developed through making FSWL as part of a collaborative research project based at Utrecht University (NL), Göttingen University (D) and University College London(UK). This research, Asymmetrical Encounters, explored the cultural aspects of European identity by analysing the role of “reference cultures” in European public debates between the Treaty of Vienna (1815) and the Treaty of Maastricht (1992) – the heyday of the nation state and its gradual substitution by European integration, and how Europe has been framed and conceptualised on multiple levels: regional, national and global.

We Are All Migrants was made in collaboration with EU Screen Portal which facilitated Heath’s online research in six different European Archives. The directorial approach was to illuminate issues of migration thematically by repositioning and weaving together images selected from over 300 films. The methodology involves an iterative process of collaboration with the composer where music and image affect the meaning of the other. Stripping away dialogue or narration is particularly appropriate for We Are All Migrants given the aim of transcending European language/cultural barriers. The actions and gestures of migrating peoples are woven together with music to create a cinematic space for reflection on the relationship between the past and now.

The film was first disseminated at the HERA (Humanities in the European Research Area) ‘Imagining Europe’ Conference in Utrecht; screened at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (2017); and further disseminated through EU Screen, a pan-European Network of Archives. This film was funded by HERA, EU Screen, Sound and Vision Netherlands Archive.