IASA's 55th Annual Conference

Filling the gaps of the Spanish Colonial Filmic Archive. Restoring and activating Hermic Films’ propaganda documentaries in Equatorial Guinea
Abstract:
Although Spanish colonialism continued right up to the final third of the 20th century, the memory of this colonial legacy is practically non-existent, and only recently official bodies, such as the Ministry of Culture, have called for the decolonization of the national cultural heritage. Within the broader terrain of today’s cultural struggles and decolonial epistemologies, this talk focuses on the propaganda documentaries Hermic Films company made in Equatorial Guinea during Franco’s dictatorship. Considered one of the most important audiovisual sources of Spanish colonial history, it has been largely neglected and unknown. The partnership between Filmoteca Española and the research project “El documental institucional y el cine de aficionado coloniales: Análisis y usos” (Carlos III University of Madrid) has enable its (ongoing) fully digitization, academic study and public access. Taking this collaborative project as a case study, the talk will reflect on the process restoration and activation of the colonial filmic archive, which implies not only unveiling its ideology but also mobilizing it in participatory filmmaking aimed to develop counter-narratives and inscribe local agency