Global and Feminist Perspectives on Cinema HistoryReframing Historiography thorough a Decentred Lens

Interdisciplinary in scope, bringing together cinema history, feminist and gender studies, postcolonial and decolonial theory and global cultural history

• Advances a feminist and decolonial framework to challenge author-centred and nationally-bounded cinema historiography, drawing on the epistemology of partial and situated knowledges
• Draws on underexplored primary sources including film fan magazines from Spain, Argentina, and Malaya; Belgian colonial missionary film records; rural exhibition archives from France; and audience reception materials from Chile and Buenos Aires — recovering overlooked agents such as itinerant exhibitors, female pseudonymous critics, and vernacular audiences
• Brings together twelve case studies from Latin America (Argentina, Chile, the Río de la Plata region), Europe (Spain, France), Sub-Saharan Africa (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi), the Middle East (Egypt, Turkey), and Southeast Asia (Malaya), covering the late nineteenth century to the 1960s

At the intersection of global and feminist film studies and decolonial perspectives, this book reframes cinema history through a decentred lens. Drawing on partial and situated knowledges, it challenges canonical narratives and interrogates how archival and textual regimes have shaped historiography from positions of privilege. Bringing together case studies from Latin America, Europe, Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, it reveals asymmetrical transnational circuits, situated reception practices and the material infrastructures of film circulation.

Through a bold feminist and decolonial framework, the collection examines how colonial and imperial power relations structure film cultures. It shifts attention from singular authorship toward non-commercial exhibition, itinerant practices and vernacular spectatorship — including set design, audience memory, fandom, and situated voices that shaped film fan magazines. The chapters map how political and cultural agents shape production, circulation and reception across global cinema networks.