Representing History: potential and limits of historical documentary in the diffusion of the past.
In: E-Journal of Portuguese History, Jg. 17 (2019-12-01), Heft 2, S. 430-431
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Zugriff:
This study intends to investigate the diverse modalities that characterize the historical documentary: what are the forms of representation of history through the documentary? How does the historical documentary as a cinematographic genre reproduce narrative models associated with the writing of history? What is its potential and what are its limitations in relation to the elaboration, thought and dissemination of history? Are documentary films new objects of knowledge? Will they make a real contribution to historiography? While the first part aims to determine the main parameters on which documentary theory and praxis are based, the second part is devoted entirely to a synchronic and diachronic analysis of a set of historical documentaries produced in Portugal about the initial phase of the Colonial War in Angola. We chose this key period of contemporary Portuguese history because of the importance of the event, not only for the political regime of the time, but also for the whole of Portuguese society. From the outbreak of hostilities in a theater of war about 10,000 kilometers away from the mainland, a major task for the government is to explain to the Portuguese population "por que nos batemos em Angola" (why we fight in Angola), as the title of an exhibition organized in August 1961 by the National Information Secretariat. This basic problem resulted in a huge media coverage not only in the various press organs, but also in the radio and in the newly constituted Radiotelevisão Portuguesa. We constituted for our analysis a body of five documentary films, two of which were produced in the period prior to April 25th and three in the later period. Both groups are, however, related by a central link: the historical documentaries produced recently about the period in question, as a rule, make use of the images that integrated two colonial and military propaganda films: Angola - Decisão de Continuar e Nambuangongo - A Grande Arrancada. This allows us to make a diachronic comparison of the reuse of these images under the perspective of the changes occurring in their meaning within new contexts. The determination of the continuities and the fractures in form and content that characterizes the documentaries will be the object of our analysis. Starting from the postulate that the cinematographic forms are means of thought as valid as the textual formulas, we try to demonstrate with this study that the contribution of the documentary film for the construction of history can be as valid as the traditional instrument of the historiography, the text written. Considering its role in "spreading the past", this study seeks to reflect on how audiovisual forms of historiography contribute to shaping historical memory and what problems they can elicit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Representing History: potential and limits of historical documentary in the diffusion of the past.
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Autor/in / Beteiligte Person: | SCHAEFER, Ansgar |
Zeitschrift: | E-Journal of Portuguese History, Jg. 17 (2019-12-01), Heft 2, S. 430-431 |
Veröffentlichung: | 2019 |
Medientyp: | academicJournal |
ISSN: | 1645-6432 (print) |
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