The project will research and disseminate new, Africa-led and practice-oriented methodologies and models for restitution of displaced African film heritage. For twentieth-century anti-colonial movements and postcolonial states, cinema was a key medium for articulating and popularising decolonisation.

Yet years of resource poverty and political inaction have left a film heritage landscape marked by neglect and material destruction. Many of the newsreels, documentary and feature films that captured the major events and experiences of the decolonisation years are either lost, or sequestered in the archives of the Global North. Only a handful of African states boast national film archives; UNESCO concluded in 2021 that African cinema’s “best surviving elements” are “almost never found in Africa.” For two years from January 2026, UNREST researchers will work with ten international partners to identify and disseminate Africa-led solutions to this egregious cultural loss.