The research group Postcolonial Film Histories and Heritages brings together and supports a network of researchers, educators, historians, archivists, and artists in the Netherlands (and beyond) who are interested in film history and heritage from a critical postcolonial perspective.

The aim of this research group is three-fold:

• First, we explore the theories, methods, and tools for postcolonial film historiography. Revisiting postcolonial theory and decolonial interventions to historical knowledge, we probe the ways in which film and media histories can be reimagined;
• Second, we engage with 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 investigate practices of archiving, collecting, preserving, cataloguing, and making accessible such (post-)colonial audiovisual heritage(s).
• Finally, in our critical study of historical knowledges, aesthetics, politics, and legacies of empire cinema (and visual culture more generally) as well as anti-, post- , and decolonial film and media cultures, we consider creative uses of audiovisual media as practices of counter-memory and counter-archive.

For those interested in joining our mailing list or organizing an event under the umbrella of the research group, please email the convenors Asli Özgen (a.ozgen-havekotte@uva.nl) and Emiel Martens (e.s.martens@uva.nl).

Members of the group are active in the following consellations: