The media operations of postcolonial mobility regimes: The cases of Filmstichting West Indië and Vereniging Ons Suriname in 1940s and 1950s Netherlands

Koen Leurs, Philipp Seuferling

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

This article analyses the communication activities of Filmstichting West Indië, which in the late 1940s and early 1950s produced 12 documentary propaganda films about Dutch colonial Suriname, and the resistance against these reductive representations in zines of the Surinamese migrant organization Vereniging Ons Suriname. We draw on hence unstudied archival material to dissect the role of media operations, as persuasive, strategic media productions, in constructing and challenging differential relations between colonizers and colonial subjects, and symbolically negotiating how different territories and bodies relate to each other. A visual and textual analysis of the cases unpacks historical struggles over the regimes of (post)colonial (im)mobilities, as they are produced and articulated within regimes of representation. We ultimately argue that, in order to understand the historical constitution of mobility regimes (and, in order to be able to critique them), we need to study the co-production of mobility regimes within regimes of mediated representation.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)672-696
JournalInternational Journal of Cultural Studies
Volume26
Issue number6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2023

Keywords

  • documentary propaganda films
  • Filmstichting West Indië
  • postcolonialism
  • regimes of (im)mobility
  • regimes of representation
  • zines
  • Vereniging Ons Suriname

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The media operations of postcolonial mobility regimes: The cases of Filmstichting West Indië and Vereniging Ons Suriname in 1940s and 1950s Netherlands'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this