Sad tropics: colonialism memories in Diana Andringa’s work

Abstract

Abstract: The documentary production of journalist Diana Andringa is characterized by a critical review on Salazarism, which began when she worked for RTP from 1978 to 2001 and is emphasized after she had left that TV channel and started working as an independent documentary filmmaker. Her first phase is highlighted by the documentaries Goa, 20 anos depois (1981), Geração de 60 (1989), Aristides de Sousa Mendes, o cônsul injustiçado (1992), and Humberto Delgado, obviamente assassinaram-no (1994), being the last two directed by Teresa Olga and having their arguments by Diana Andringa. From 2001 onwards, films related to the Portuguese colonial past in Africa stand out: Timor, o sonho do crocodilo (2002), As duas faces da guerra (2007), in partnership with Guinean filmmaker Flora Gomes, Dundo, memória colonial (2009), Tarrafal, memórias do campo da morte lenta (2010), Operação Angola: fugir para lutar (2015) and Guiné-Bissau: da memória ao futuro (2019). A look at those corpora reveals the coherence of Andringa’s work in search to rescue the memory of the resistance against the Estado Novo as well as the fight against colonialism ever since the time she worked for RTP. Our goal, departing from the analysis of part of this production, is to reflect upon its role in the process of revisiting the Portuguese past in the last century.