Projekt

This project seeks to open up the archives and archival practices of Latin American cinemas, focusing on areas and objects of study that have often been overlooked in specialized research. These include unfinished footage, ephemera, snippets of censored films, and the silences and exclusions in national film collections. By combining the theoretical framework of new materialisms with region-specific film archival research methods, the project strives to create new research pathways. To achieve this, it introduces the concept of "kinophagy", which explores how audiovisual records falling outside dominant aesthetic and historical criteria are misrepresented and rendered invisible. Our goal is to provide a critical alternative to prevailing national perspectives on audiovisual heritage by concentrating on materials that have been excluded from the main narratives of art because they were considered to lack historical, political, or aesthetic value, such as those produced by communities and individuals historically subjected to violent colonial imagery. Since audiovisual heritage from Latin America is often overlooked by researchers and curators, mainly due to challenging preservation and digitization conditions, our project aims to unveil the potential of the diverse material and audiovisual content within existing archives. We will develop context-specific research methods, drawing attention to marginalized cinema memories, with the aim of addressing preservation policies and the intricate dynamics between the Global North and Latin America within the realm of archives.

• Dr. Delfina Isabel Cabrera

  Universität Köln
  Philosophische Fakultät
  Portugiesisch-Brasilianisches Institut
  Köln
  

• Dr. Cecilia Nuria Gil Mariño

  Universität Köln
  Philosophische Fakultät
  Portugiesisch-Brasilianisches Institut
  Köln
  

• Dr. Carola Saavedra

  Universität Köln
  Philosophische Fakultät
  Portugiesisch-Brasilianisches Institut
  Köln