Amnesia and Remembering: Dal polo all'equatore, a Film by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi

Author: Lumley, Robert

Source: Italian Studies, Volume 64, Number 1, Spring 2009 , pp. 134-143(10)

Publisher: Maney Publishing

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Abstract:

The title Dal polo all'equatore was first used by the pioneering documentary maker, Luca Comerio, for a compilation film of 1925; it was used again by Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi for their film of 1985. Much of the original has been re-worked: the 'found footage' has been re-shot, slowed down, tinted, and re-edited with a sound track of minimalist composition. As a result, the exotica of colonial travel and sport take on new and sinister meanings. The acts of violence, especially those of hunting, recur in patterns that suggest visually that war is a logical development. A close examination of the work, starting with the opening sequence of a railway journey, explores the centrality of questions of memory and history to this remarkable and influential film.

Keywords: MEMORY; HISTORY; EARLY CINEMA; ARCHIVE; VIOLENCE; EXPERIMENTAL FILMMAKING

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1179/174861809X405845

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