Archives should preserve the past, but also often preserve unjust power relations. Images and recordings made under colonial rule or other forms of oppression remain in institutions removed from the communities they depict; these continue to determine who can access material and how it can be used, so controlling histories often documented without the consent, let alone agency, of those involved. 

This goes beyond copyright or the right to tell a story through another’s images. The erasure of perspectives and experiences of communities in official collections is well-established. Exposing the mechanisms behind and confronting the structures that perpetuate this must now move to reclaiming these histories; some archives, historians, researchers, and filmmakers are working towards this. 

This Talk brings together practitioners to challenge inherited systems of ownership and control, and change these. Through approaches to finding, using, contextualizing and returning material, it considers how the documentary industry and filmmakers can open archives to new interpretations, restore connections to displaced or suppressed histories, and map the field between legal ownership and cultural belonging.

Moderator: Nora Philippe (Program Director, EURODOC) 

Speakers: TBC