ABSTRACT
In this chapter, six images set the scene for an exploration of the governance of colonial archives in Italy, the determining and enduring influence of Fascism on national cinema and cultural industries, and the censorship of film productions that expose Italian colonial violence. A focus on Ethiopian American filmmaker Haile Gerima's struggle to secure access to colonial footage from Italian archives is interwoven with reflections on the author's own practice and positionality in relation to Italian heritage institutions. Considering strategies of resistance, refusal, and circumvention that create friction in the archive, the chapter puts forward the demand for the restitution of the footage claimed by Gerima and his close collaborators, Shirikiana Aina and Greg Thomas.
