ABSTRACT
The visual material produced in the diaspora by Cape Verdeans or by people of Cape Verdean descent contributes to the construction of an image of the Archipelago outside of its national borders. This chapter proposes to construct different levels of possible analysis of moving images produced about Cape Verde, analyzing the characteristics of this inherently transnational cinema, produced outside of the archipelago but in which the Cape Verdean reality remains central to the narrative. It weaves thematic connections in the recent practices of representation in diasporic context, especially in Portugal. The chapter investigates how these strategies of representation/self-representation of the national narrative are constructed in a diasporic context. The Portuguese director Rui Simoes's two films on the Cape Verdean presence in the neighbourhoods on the periphery of Lisbon, Ilha da Cova da Moura and Kola San Jon, form part of the same current of documentary making.
