Das populäre Hindikino, schon immer hybrid, ist seit den 1990er Jahren ein globales Phänomen. Die Ausrichtung auf ein internationales Publikum hat Konsequenzen für die Produktion, Ästhetik und Distribution der Filme. Inwiefern kann eine transnationale Perspektive dem Wandel Bollywoods vom Kino zur Kulturindustrie (Rajadhyaksha) Rechnung tragen? Der Beitrag untersucht veränderte Distributionsbedingungen, lokale Rezeptionen und Aneignungen sowie Bollywoods globale Fankultur.

In its highly self-reflexive mode, questioning the notion of filmic images as ‘visible evidence’, the essay film is an epistemological tool for the study of visual politics. Therefore, it can offer useful insights into the mediatization of cultural memory. This paper will look at the use of the essay film by minoritized groups (Black, diasporic, feminist, queer), focussing on the remediations of archival footage. How can essay films be conceptualised as an emancipatory practice opening up discursive spaces for vernacular and alternative memories without lapsing into essentialism? Using Black British avant-garde filmmaking as an example, this paper examines filmic interventions into the visual archive. It outlines three practices of an anti-essentialist use of images defying notions of ‘truth’ and ‘authenticity’:  reworking the archive as a) ways of deconstructing hegenomic representation, b) as archaeological excavations into the archive, and c) as a mode of carving out discursive spaces for utopian visions.

Collective film-making practice in Germany is still a blind spot in film historiography. During the 1970s and 1980s independent film and video workshops established a nationwide network to provide ‘counter information’ (Negt/Kluge) in order to challenge dominant media representations. Therefore, the works of the video collectives can become a relevant source for historians and journalists alike. While the videos can be perceived as an important contribution to left-wing cultural memory, this memory of the various media practices of the last decades is currently fading away. The videotapes slowly disintegrate and as digitization is costly and time-consuming, many video productions will not survive. This has consequences not only for historiography, but also for the visual iconography of cultural memory. This article focuses on the archival practice of three workshops in Hamburg, the stronghold for German independent film-making after 1968: the Medienpädagogikzentrum (Centre for Media Pedagogy, 1973–), bildwechsel (1979–), the umbrella organization for women in media, culture and art, and die thede (1980–), an association of documentary film-makers. The examples show how archival practice can be conceptualized not only as part of the hegemonic national archive alone, but also as an act of counter-memory. © 2011 Intellect Ltd Article.

A portrait of the Swedish director Roy Andersson

Ett porträtt av den svenske regissören Roy Andersson