The Production of the Past: Early Tamil Film History as a Living Archive
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: This article considers a series of questions about the relationships between historical sources, archival practice, and the production of film history about Tamil cinema of the 1930s. I review the range of archival material relevant for producing histories of early Tamil film in order to consider how the issue of access to historical sources has produced various kinds of expert knowledge. What kind of limits do these various film archives impose on our historical research? How do these archives constitute their own historical narratives? And, how might we begin to think critically beyond these limitations to write alternative histories of early Tamil film? I argue that these questions are vital in order to remake film history as an ongoing, unfinished, and open-ended project that is part of the living present.
Author: Stephen Putnam Hughes
Institution: SOAS University of London
Language: English
Subfield: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2026889059