Decolonial Visions in Diaspora Cinema

Colonial history is not in the past. It shapes memory and knowledge archives in the present - what we remember and how. Official narratives that normalize hegemonic dominance and exploitation need to be revised from the perspective of postcolonial cultural productions. As part of Dekoloniale 2024, the film series Decolonial Visions in Diaspora Cinema sheds light on the Asia Pacific region as a site where various overlapping forms of colonization exist. The focus is on works by Asian-diasporic filmmakers that open up alternatives to colonial knowledge in and from the ambivalence of diasporic positioning. In four screenings, each followed by a discussion, diaspora will be negotiated as a condition of possibility for critical-creative, decolonial memory work and cultural practice. (SJC + FMH)

Feng-Mei Heberer is Assistant Professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at New York University. She is a faculty affiliate of the department’s Asian Film and Media Initiative. Her research interests lie at the junctures of labor, transnational migration, and Asian diaspora, and her work draws on the insights of ethnic studies, queer studies, feminist studies, and critical area studies.

Sun-Ju Choi studied film and screenwriting at the German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) and received her PhD on family concepts and representation in North Korean film. She is a board member of korientation e.V. – Netzwerk für Asiatisch-Deutsche Perspektiven and neue deutsche organisationen – das postmigrantische netzwerk e.V.

In cooperation with Dekoloniale 2024/ korientation e.V.