Articulations of Memory in Cinemas
Friday 09/02– Saturday 09/03, 2011
University of Ottawa, Canada
The subject of this interdisciplinary and bilingual (French and English) workshop is the articulations of memory in African, diasporic, national, and black cinemas.
Representations of memory are linked with the questions of identity and identity structures, because they not only shed light on the past but also reflect on the actual constructions of the past. In our multicultural societies, audio-visual representations of memory seem to question individual identities (Histoires de Sable by Hyacinthe Combari 2004; Corps Plongés by Raoul Peck 1998; Ezra by Newton Aduaka 2006), as far as collectives ones (Camp Thiaroye by Sembene Ousmane 1988; Summer of ‘62 by Medhi Charef 2006; Africa United by Eric Kabera 2010).
Through these examples, cinema can be a recording medium in which complex and trans-temporal structures of memory are “rebuilt” or “reinterpreted”.
Michael T. Martin, Professor at the Department of Communication and Culture and American Studies Program and Director of the Black Film Center/Archive, will present his paper, Historical Trauma: Reading Slavery in the Cinematographic Archive, which engages with memory, its historicity and importance to cinematic accounts and readings of historical trauma. It is also about the relevance of memory to the project of worldmaking.
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