Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses the digital curation of African colonial film cultures. Starting with a critical analysis of the platforms Archivio Luce and Colonial Film, I consider how European archives function as information gatekeepers and memory agents in the circulation of colonial films.

Paper long abstract:

Taking as example the platforms Archivio Luce and Colonial Film, this paper focuses on the digital circulation, curation and presentation of African colonial film cultures. I reflect on how through these platforms Italian and British film institutions act as information gatekeepers (Gracy 2007) in the circulation of colonial films and as memory agents (Brunow 2017) in the formation of their historiographies. Looking at digital curating of colonial audiovisual documents in a postcolonial perspective, one can detect different forms of tacit violence and discrimination encoded in archival acts (Azoulay 2019). Functioning as the main transnational circulation networks for colonial films, digital platforms are relevant frameworks in which colonial films are experienced, historiographies around colonial films are created, and collective memories are activated. Although online digital access seems to permit an unlimited and free accessibility to colonial film cultures, the infrastructural and technological conditions of existence of digital platforms reveal the contradictions of that promise. How can a restitution policy/politic for colonial films look like, considering the reproductive nature of the medium film, the hybrid ontology of the film original and the affordances of digital platforms? Can digital presentation and online access be considered a form of restitution or does it reiterate neocolonial dynamics? Should restitution imply a repatriation of original materials after digitization? These questions can be better addressed in the frame of an exchange of knowledge and practices between institutional actors and stakeholders involved in specific cases accompanied by an open discussion in the public debate.