Counter-memory and representations of otherness: Three documentaries by Fred Kudjo Kuwornu

Abstract

Abstract This study analyses how the documentary films of Italian-Ghanaian activist and director Fred Kuwornu attempt to correct inaccurate historical interpretations that have delineated the space of blacks in cultural memory as a space of absence. These films interrogate discourses of otherness in different contexts: Inside Buffalo (Kuwornu and Jeffrey, 2010) about African American soldiers in the Second World War; 18 Ius soli: il diritto di essere italiani (18 Ius soli: The Right to Be Italian) (Kuwornu and Jeffrey, 2012) decrying the denial of citizenship to children of migrants in Italy; and Blaxploitalian: 100 anni di afrostorie nel cinema italiano (Blaxploitalian: One Hundred Years of Blackness in Italian Cinema) (Kuwornu and Jeffrey, 2016) tracing the screen presence of black actors in Italy. The study argues that the intertexuality in these films exposes repressed cultural memory and counter-memory that are critical for deconstructing racist formulations of national identity in Italy and the United States. Furthermore, the article seeks to investigate the claim to objectivity that documentary makes by examining the autobiographical elements that the filmmaker has inserted into his works.