This experimental session will screen Stolen Photo (54 minutes) and then host a conversation between historian Lina Britto and director Kevin Coleman.

Stolen Photo tells the story of how a U.S.-based fruit company and the Colombian military used a studio portrait to identify and kill the leaders of the 1928 banana workers’ strike. Moving between Colombia and company archives held at Harvard University and the University of Toronto, this documentary traces the connection between physical violence and archival violence, between the killing of striking banana workers and the historical oblivion that enables the continued production of cheap bananas.

Stolen Photo (54 minutes) is a coproduction between Kevin Coleman and Señal Colombia/RTVC, and received additional support from the National Film Board of Canada and Underline Studio. The film is English and Spanish, and subtitled for English-speaking audiences.

Our discussion after the screening will consider how historians can trace the mutilation of the historical archives and create practices of remembrance that enable more civil ways of being together. We will also talk about the mechanics of converting published historical research into films for mass audiences, as well as some of the risks and rewards for historians who want to give it a shot.