Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

such images are paying for materials used, and investing personal time in
capturing such images, it still remains unethical and immoral to copyright
an image of someone and then go on to exploit it for personal commercial
interests.
When the young South African woman Sarah Baartman was coaxed into
leaving South Africa for Europe in the early 19th century, her captives
made her sign a contract, which they attested she agreed to. Sarah signed
a contract that was written in a western language she did not understand,
and contained terms and conditions alien to her as an African living in a
society where contracts of a western nature were not common or even
known in her community, where the legalities of what she was signing were
foreign and unanticipated.
The atrocious treatment of Sarah is candidly captured in a biographical
documentary film, in which the return of her remains is captured through
amazing landscapes of Khoi villages, whose culture is used as a canvas
that illustrates the ancient civilization of Khoi rock paintings, with the film’s
narration caressed by Khoi musical sounds and rhythms. The return of
Sarah’s remains was metaphorical, and became a symbolic manifestation of
a renaissance of Africa, where repatriation was important as a reconciliatory
rehabilitating process and a necessary ritual to help us heal wounds of the
past.
Today, as we mark this important day of the gathering of this unique
congregation of film practitioners, cultural activists, academics,
broadcasters, legislators, educators, and archivists, we must bring to the
conscience of FIAF the necessity of creating a legislative framework and
administrative infrastructure which will allow constructive dialogue within
nations, especially those that are in possession of indigenous cultural
film recordings, a constructive dialogue that is strategically focused on
the return of film archives that have been for decades housed in foreign
territories, and the necessity of bringing these materials back to their
original territories, within a framework of preparedness and readiness by
their legitimate recipients.
The Federation of African Film-makers, FEPACI, recognizes the assumption
that more than 80% of films are under the control, ownership, and
management of their foreign counterparts. In response to this critical
assumption, FEPACI is mandated to conduct a feasibility study, which
will, among other things, identify their legal status in terms of control,
ownership, and copyright. FEPACI is therefore exploring tangible options for
the establishment of a FEPACI Institute, which, if established, will become
not only home to a FEPACI Media Channel, but a Center of Film Research
and Archives. Responsive interregional strategies as represented by the
African Union (AU) and capable of negotiating with the relevant countries,
as well as relevant institutions such as the World Trade Organization (WTO)
and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), are more than a
necessity, as the UNESCO Culture and Diversity Conference supports the
return of indigenous heritage to its rightful owners.
The challenge facing Africa’s world of film and television is that we do
not have coherent regional trade cultural policies made through regional
and/or continental consensus. We are a fragmented continent, divided by
our demographics, languages, politics, and ideologies, and we have for
11 Journal of Film Preservation / 85 / 2011