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Contribution short abstract:

This paper introduces 'Colonial Reels' and the project's proposed research into colonial film holdings in selected British archives and collections: British Empire and Commonwealth Collection, British Film Institute, Royal Anthropological Institute and Wellcome Collection.

Contribution long abstract:

The 'Colonial Reels' project aims to research histories of selected repositories of colonial films; conceptualise the aesthetics and formal practices of the films they hold; analyse the films' strategies of representation; and investigate their circulation, exhibition and audiences. It will actively contribute to debates on decolonisation, reparation and restitution in relation to film archives.

The project will focus on: historical contexts; film-specific infrastructures and technologies; production histories and contexts; representation; and archive. Its time frame is 1920 to 1980, which will be divided into two historical periods: 1920-1950 and 1950-1980, relating to technological shifts and also to British colonial histories, histories of independence and the move from colonial to postcolonial worlds.

The project's primary research methods are: 1) in-depth film analysis and historical research; 2) practice-based research and the creation of thematic short films; and 3) recordings of African and Indian filmmakers cataloguing their experiences with archives, and their perspectives on decolonising the archives.

The paper will reflect on the opportunities the RAI conference has afforded to present and discuss imaginaries that colonial films project, 'interventions and interrogations' (2021), and how we might shape 21st century counter-futures (2023).