- Reanimation: Les hommes de la danse (Costa Diagne, 1965)
- Recuperation: Africa, the jungle, drums and revolution (Suliman Elnour, 1977)
- Repair: Mémoire 14 (Ahmed Bouananni, 1969-1971)
Their archival trajectories attest to the violence of objectification embedded in archival images and classifications, as well as to the seizure and destruction of archives by post-colonial states seeking to control the contested memory of independence.
Across these cases, he proposes a reading of African archival filmmaking as both restitutive and a critical interrogation on restitution: while materially reclaiming images that might otherwise have remained inaccessible, the films stage a formal inquiry into the reappropriation of archival images, exploring not only the possibilities entailed by their return, but also the conditions and limitations that shape their use.
Beyond reclaiming archival materials, African filmmakers engaged archives as institutions: as sites where images are preserved, ordered, and selectively made available, and as spaces of enclosure and sequestration.
His discussion moves from close readings of individual films to reconstructions of their historical production contexts and archival afterlives, demonstrating how the material conditions of archiving both shape and constrain possibilities of reappropriation.
Therefore, he argues that a viable project of moving image restitution today can only take shape through a critical reckoning with colonial legacies (and post-colonial aftermaths) in audiovisual archiving.
