A Third Version of the Imaginary
Director Benjamin Tiven
Countries Kenya, United States
Duration 12 min
Synopsis
A Third Version of the Imaginary traces an encounter with the video and film library of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in Nairobi, one of the first television stations in Africa. We follow the librarian as he leads us through stacks of video cassettes, searching for a specific image. A Swahili voice-over speaks about video technology in Kenya, and its impact on archiving television images. Then, the librarian converts a basement storage closet into a makeshift cinema to screen some 16mm film material. The voice-over shifts accordingly, moving from video to film, and to the linguistic problem posed by the very word “image” in Swahili.
A Third Version of the Imaginary traces an encounter with the video and film library of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation in Nairobi, one of the first television stations in Africa. We follow the librarian as he leads us through stacks of video cassettes, searching for a specific image. A Swahili voice-over speaks about video technology in Kenya, and its impact on archiving television images. Then, the librarian converts a basement storage closet into a makeshift cinema to screen some 16mm film material. The voice-over shifts accordingly, moving from video to film, and to the linguistic problem posed by the very word “image” in Swahili.