Video-genealogies. Testimonies, Descents, Audiovisual Archives

Thanks to the capillary diffusion of media devices, in the last few years, the dimension of memory has been undergoing a fast evolution, in terms of construction of new cognitive maps, as well as of archiving systems. In particular, a prismatic and coral representation of historical processes is replacing the univocality of the institutional perspective, as a consequence of an approach that takes the experiential and individual connotation into account. In the audiovisual domain, we can assist at the establishing of an out-and-out genre, variously named by researchers: video-testimony, film-témoin, visual life story, video-portrait. All these productions would induce to think about a form of anti-canonisation within the historical elaboration. Nevertheless, as some cases of study show, there are some recognisable elements, that conduct in the opposite direction.