Benjamin Mier-Cruz

Documenting Embodied Fictions

This project examines short films by Swedish filmmakers of color who creatively repurpose reenactment and docufiction techniques—commonly used in early ethnographic cinema—to document the intellectual, emotional, and material labor that people of color do to make race visible and valuable for the camera. I explore how their complex portrayals of racialization events within Sweden’s culture of racial colorblindness reshape the documentary format, which has traditionally been governed by viewing habits and standards of objectivity rooted in hegemonic whiteness. These filmmakers demonstrate how visual activism can challenge racial oppression without reinforcing conventional racializing filmmaking practices.

Benjamin Mier-Cruz is an Assistant Professor of Scandinavian Studies and Gender and Women’s Studies. Their research centers on on filmmakers of color in Nordic cinema as well as queer and transgender cinema. Their current book project examines how race, gender, and sexuality are represented in documentaries and short films by Swedish filmmakers of color. Benjamin’s broader research interests include transgender studies, queer theory, Black feminist theory, vampire literature and film, and German literature and film.