FIAT/IFTA World Conference 2026

In contemporary broadcast television, audiovisual archives have moved well beyond preservation and historical reference. When placed in the hands of editors and curators working within promotional content, they become powerful narrative tools capable of connecting audiences across generations through emotion, memory and cultural identity. This presentation offers a practice-based perspective on how archival footage can be reinterpreted through montage editing to create new narratives that resonate with contemporary audiences.


Drawing from case studies developed at TV Globo, Brazil's largest broadcast network, the presentation examines promotional campaigns that combined archival footage from multiple decades to generate emotional continuity between past and present. These include national campaigns such as the FIFA World Cup, the Olympic Games, Formula 1, the 70th anniversary of Brazilian telenovelas, and the 50th anniversary of Roberto Carlos' iconic year-end television special. Each of these events carries a strong intergenerational dimension, having been experienced by different audiences over time.


A central element of this process is the curatorial work that begins before the edit: navigating broadcast archives in search of emblematic gestures, movements and emotionally charged moments with the potential to resonate across time. Once identified, these fragments are joined through match cut montage, transforming disconnected historical scenes into a single, continuous flow in which past and present coexist.
The presentation argues that montage editing functions as a form of cultural mediation that activates archival memory and reinforces broadcast television as a living repository of collective experiences. Rooted in a Brazilian context, it contributes to broader global discussions in the field, showing how the creative reuse of archival footage can introduce younger generations to cultural moments they never witnessed firsthand and transforming the broadcast archive into a gateway for intergenerational discovery.