Postcolonial Film Histories and Heritages
The research group Postcolonial Film Histories and Heritages seeks to bring together and to establish a network between researchers, educators and practitioners in the Netherlands (and beyond) who are interested in film history and heritage from a critical postcolonial perspective.
At its outset, the preliminary aim of this research group is three-fold:
- First, we seek to explore the theories, methods, and tools for postcolonial film historiography. Revisiting postcolonial theory and decolonial interventions to historical knowledge, we will probe the ways in which media history can be reimagined;
- Second, we are interested in exploring the anti- and post-colonial audiovisual heritage(s) – be it stored in national memory institutions, grassroots archives, collective databases or personal collections. At this level, we seek to explore practices of archiving, collecting, preserving, cataloguing, and making accessible such (post-)colonial audiovisual heritage(s). The absence or ruination of such heritage are among the topics we are interested in.
- Finally, in our critical study of historical knowledges, aesthetics, politics, and legacies of empire cinema (and visual culture more generally) as well as anti- and postcolonial film and media cultures, we seek to consider creative use of audiovisual media as practices of counter-memory and counter-archive.
We’re eager to explore these three areas and hope to expand this framework further with researchers, scholars, archivists, and artists who identify with or have an interested in these areas.
We are planning to have a first meeting in September. Our aim is to meet on a regular basis, but we can decide the content and the frequency of these meetings together in this first meeting. In time, our plans are to organise a workshop (probably in Summer 2022), put together a PhD Seminar (2022-2023), and convene an international conference at a later date. We’re open to ideas about guest lectures, screenings (with Q&As) and other activities as well.
For those interested in joining our mailing list or organizing an event under the umbrella of the research group, please email the convenors Asli Ozgen (a.ozgen-havekotte@uva.nl) and Emiel Martens (e.s.martens@uva.nl).