This session proposes a joint field-based presentation by the Institut national de l’audiovisuel (INA, France) and the Cinemateca Brasileira, drawing on the project
Crossed Perspectives France–Brazil, developed within the framework of the France–Brazil Cultural Season 2025.
The project addresses a central question for audiovisual archives worldwide: how to preserve, document, restore and provide access to audiovisual collections related to Indigenous peoples, in contexts shaped by historical asymmetries, political sensitivities and ethical responsibilities, while engaging respectfully with the communities concerned.
Based on audiovisual collections held in France and Brazil, largely produced through external viewpoints, the project initiated a process of critical reassessment of collections, re-documentation and international cooperation, in dialogue with Brazilian professionals and representatives of Indigenous communities, notably the Xokó people.
Audiovisual archives relating to Indigenous peoples are highly sensitive heritage materials, both invaluable and complex to work with. They raise intertwined challenges:
- historical North–South imbalances in the production and custody of images;
- ethical issues related to rights, consent and contemporary uses;
- documentary gaps and inadequate metadata;
- growing expectations regarding access, restitution and cultural reappropriation.
In this context, cooperation between a European public audiovisual archive and a major Latin American cinematheque offers a concrete opportunity to experiment with operational frameworks based on trust, mediation and co-construction.
In this context, the presentation will consist in drawing hypothesis to the following questions :
- How can audiovisual archives responsibly work with collections related to Indigenous peoples that were historically produced through external or unequal viewpoints?
- In what ways can ethical considerations (rights, consent, cultural sensitivity) be embedded directly into archival, technical and editorial workflows?
- What role can national institutions and international cooperation play in enabling dialogue, shared governance and sustainable decision‑making?
- Which practices developed through this France–Brazil experience are transferable to other archival contexts dealing with sensitive or marginalised memories?
The Cinemateca Brasileira: reference institution and national mediatorThe Cinemateca Brasileira plays a key role in anchoring the project locally, combining archival expertise, in-depth knowledge of Brazilian legal and cultural contexts, and active dialogue with professionals and communities. It contributes to defining cooperation frameworks that are attentive to Indigenous sensitivities and national institutional realities.
INA: trusted third party and methodological facilitatorINA acts as a trusted third party, providing methodological tools for documentation, analysis and governance, while supporting the critical reassessment of collections produced outside Brazil.
