The Materials

The objective of this project is to retrieve and present the physical evidence of the fiction programming produced in Latin America in the 1950s and 60s: kinescopes, newsreels, still photos, news-clippings, promotional materials (ads, posters, postcards, etc.), and derivative works (i.e. comic books).

As a documentary producer, my work has been focused on the use of archival records for storytelling purposes. I am particularly interested in the materiality of the existing records, and in the possibility of organizing, re-purposing and interpreting them to create new meaning. Most of the existing footage from the period is stored on 2’ or 1” tapes, or kinescopes (16mm), but there is also a considerable number of records that were preserved by people who recorded re-runs of these programs in the 1980s using consumer level devices (Betamax and VHS).

What follows are samples of the materials that were collected as part of ‘The Telenovela Archives’ research process.