Abstract
Adopting an anthropologically-informed materialist approach to moving images and their archives, the article analyses the so-called “colonial collection” of the Portuguese Film Museum. It reflects on its fragmentary condition, the classificatory hesitations that permeate it and the implications it may have, within and without the archival field. The aim is to move beyond issues of representation, imaginary and propaganda that have dominated the study of colonial images, and hence to question received ideas. What the fragments that have outlasted the relationship between cinema and the Portuguese colonies suggests is a project of domination that was cautious, erratic or even indifferent towards the cinematic apparatus. The article also explores some of the archive’s material lessons, calling for the combination of much-needed empirical work with further theorization along the proposed lines.
Key words:
Archive; Moving images; Materiality; Colonialism; Portugal (1908-75)