[Commlist] CFP on Archives and 'Lusophone' film

Call for papers - ARCHIVES AND 'LUSOPHONE' FILM


Archival practices in the 20th and early-21st century have been 
understood in a variety of ways. For some, “artists started to rely on 
the topos of the archive to express their unease about canonic systems 
for the production of knowledge” (Giannachi, 2016: 131). For others, a 
reviewing of the archive as a power structure and the blind spots, or 
silences, it produced was in order (Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1995: 53). 
For others still, this ‘archival turn’ grew out of a fascination with 
historiography and with memory (Spieker, 2008: 26), characteristic of 
postmodern societies. Two main theoretical frameworks have been 
consistently called forth in contemporary studies of the archive. First, 
that of Michel Foucault’s association of the archive not with a building 
or with the documents there contained, but with the system that governs 
its ordering, and structures the knowledge there encased [2002 (1969): 
145]. Second, Jacques Derrida’s proposition in Archive Fever that the 
archive is reliant on an archivist as both a guardian and an 
interpreter, and that of the paradox enclosed in the notion that saving, 
or remembering, everything will only lead to the destruction of the 
archive, for if something cannot be found, it will forgotten (1995: 12).

Filmic engagement with the archive has taken a variety of shapes. From 
the particularities moving images pose to processes of classification 
and conservation; to the archival associations of ethnographic film; or 
to montage, avant-garde and artistic practices that might be read under 
the umbrella of ‘archiveology’: where archival films “can have a real 
effect on the archive itself”(Russell, 2018: 90).

The book we propose — Archives in ‘Lusophone’ Film — aims to expand this 
area of knowledge into a region that has yet to see an expansive 
international study: the ‘Lusophone’ world. Having lived through an 
imperialistic and colonial past, the vast majority of 
Portuguese-speaking countries have faced political disturbances and 
censorship, economic hindrances and quick developments that raise 
questions about history and memory, in the public and private sphere, in 
political, social and cultural terms, and the way in which these have 
been (or are still to be) archived. Although there are a number of 
places in the diaspora that still speak Portuguese, ten territories have 
Portuguese as their official language: Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, East 
Timor, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Macau, Mozambique, Portugal and 
São Tomé and Príncipe. Here we do not seek to imply that the notion of 
the ‘Lusophone’ is bounded by geographical and linguist regions, instead 
we look to question these assumptions as remnants of a colonial system 
that influenced the construction of archives in these territories, 
identifying both internal and external links and tensions.

Fostered by the ‘Cinema and the World - Studies on Space and 
Cinema’ cluster at THELEME – Interarts and Intermedia research group, 
Centre for Comparative Studies, University of Lisbon, the book will be 
grounded on case studies – particularly that of film, be it documental, 
fictional or experimental – to illuminate broader archival processes and 
thinking.

We invite proposals for individual papers on topics related to Archives 
in 'Lusophone' Film, which may include but are not limited to:

  *

    comparative study of archival processes and methodologies during
    dictatorships and authoritarian regimes in 'Lusophone' countries;

  *

    colonial, anti-colonial and post-colonial perspectives on film 
archives;

  *

    the role of the archive on the construction of history;

  *

    cultural heritage and collective memory practices: the
    reconfiguration of memory in archival film works;

  *

    filmic archival self-reflexivity;

  *

    the status of the 'original' within found footage;

  *

    independent and institutional archival spaces and exhibition venues;

  *

    curatorship of archival films;

  *

    copyright, legal issues and policy;

  *

    collection, preservation and availability within institutional 
archives.

Please send your 500-750 word proposal and 100 word bionote, as well as 
3-5 keywords to (archivelusophonefilm /at/ gmail.com) 
<mailto:(archivelusophonefilm /at/ gmail.com)> by October 15, 2019. We welcome 
initial email enquiries to discuss possible proposals.

Final submissions will be 5000-6000 words, in English, and submitted by 
April 30, 2020.

A one-day workshop with the selected authors will be held at the School 
of Arts & Humanities, University of Lisbon, in June 2020.

Any questions should be sent to

Sandra Camacho, Ana Bela Morais and  Filipa Rosário

(School of Arts & Humanities, University of Lisbon)

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