Blockchain Papers

Jacqueline Deirdre Pretorius

This paper offers a discussion and reflection on my work titled "Cabinets of Curiosities for the Postcolony II: Tokens, Collections I-V" (hereafter referred to as "Tokens") which was exhibited in 2022 both physically in a gallery in Johannesburg, South Africa, and virtually on the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace OpenSea.The physical component of "Tokens" consists of five entomology cases, each displaying a collection of unique, handmade objects, and an artists' book, and the digital component takes the form of 51 NFTs.I describe the origin, development and nature of the project and explain the reasoning behind the creative decisions that I made.Initially the project was driven by my need for tactility and experimenting and crafting with physical materials, but it evolved into an exploration of the question of what is considered "new knowledge" in creative practice.This exploration eventually led me to the world of NFTs and resulted in a final creative project that engages with further questions around uniqueness, the aura of physical and digital art, and value.I propose that by making and naming new objects, I created new knowledge, which I then attempted to validate by minting the objects as NFTs.However, I realised that by digitally reproducing the physical objects I ran the risk of destroying their "aura" as postulated by Walter Benjamin in his 1935 essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction".I consider Benjamin's concept of "aura" in relation to physical and digital art and highlight more contemporary views that refute his claim.This leads to a brief discussion of the financial value of NFTs and the importance of community in creating value in the NFT world.I conclude by noting that many questions remain on what blockchain technology can do and become for artists and the study contributes one such perspective and experience.Creative practitioners are encouraged to become acquainted with this technology.

Laura Fair

In May 1966, the first—and perhaps only—socialist drive-in on the planet opened in Tanzania, on the site of what is today the American embassy in the nation's capital, Dar es Salaam.1 The brainchild of C. C. Patel, a cunning and well-connected insurance magnate with business, political, and family ties throughout East Africa, with the assistance of Second Vice-President Rashid Kawawa, a former actor, the drive-in was heralded by leading Tanzanian politicians as a stunning example of the modernist development opportunities achievable through African socialism.2 At the ribbon-cutting ceremony, the minister of commerce and cooperatives, Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu, an avowed Marxist and an avid supporter of state socialism, hailed it as an “exemplary project of co-operation” between private enterprise and the socialist state.3 The capital for building and operating the drive-in was provided entirely by Patel. The Tanzanian government acquired a 30 percent stake in the venture through a “donation” of land, while unnamed officials were granted shares in the company in exchange for their support.4 In the spirit of African socialism that was sweeping the nation at the time, the corporate name of the drive-in was Sisi Enterprises, with the “C. C.” of Patel's initials superseded by Sisi, Kiswahili for “we” or “us.”5 Yet why, one might reasonably ask, would a young nation such as Tanzania—striving to dig its way out from under the problems caused by decades of colonial underdevelopment—choose to invest its limited resources in a drive-in? How could state ownership of a drive-in possibly help to advance a socialist agenda? Didn't the drive-in—predicated as it was on the commercial consumption of foreign films and propelled by the urban amenities of electricity, cars, and leisure—directly contradict President Julius Nyerere's vision of village-based African socialism? What motivated a righteous communist such as Babu, or Kawawa, who was responsible for launching several campaigns against youthful “debauchery” in the 1960s and 1970s, to participate in the opening festivities for a space that was commonly regarded as a passion pit?6 How did the same government that banned television broadcasting until the mid-1990s and arrested private owners of televisions and VCRs in the early 1980s rationalize owning a drive-in? And why would a regime that frequently vilified Tanzanian Asians in the state-owned press and nationalized their property in the name of equality partner with Patel, one of the wealthiest men in East Africa? The most obvious answer to these questions is that states, like the individuals who compose them, are complicated and often contradictory entities that sometimes say one thing and do another. While the anomaly of a socialist drive-in cinema may complicate our understanding of state-centered development, we can use it to explore the complex and contradictory visions of socialism, modernity, and independence that were debated in Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s. Sisi Enterprises was but one of many high modernist commercial leisure and industrial projects presaged by the National Development Corporation (NDC) in their published reports and magazines, heralding the state's ability to fulfill not only needs, but desires as well. Socialism and communism were conceived by many as an alternative to capitalism when it came to the fulfillment of consumptive desires. The aim was to achieve abundance; the goal was to do the and with to to and to who decades of the drive-in to to and the as that with former of the and that were to an on the of of the at the were of and in from the The drive-in for and and the of and the to the the was the at that is and to as the of in urban in many questions at the drive-in of a for a when and the nation were and a for the space and and urban the drive-in one of the for leisure in Dar es In 1966, its of the a Tanzanian in the of in At a when the was that came to the drive-in that a the most for leisure in Tanzania, would out to the drive-in and in at in the the did not until at the leading from the drive-in was often a to the and most of a in that or in of was a for who in Dar es between and of the was could a of the their way a the socialist of a drive-in might Sisi Enterprises provided an space urban and were was a one could Asians and by in their cars, and and in the same films and not but and were to their at the drive-in a the but in to the for cars, were for as as on the the cars, were by who from on their or from the the In Tanzania in the 1960s and 1970s, it was not to a of the to an at the and one came on by in the of a in a or in a private was the The films that at the drive-in were at the in as and it was not for to the same on opening and were of the same as to and the and to the to an of the was a of urban in did not to the many of the the was that were and could in these the of the In its it to Sisi Enterprises as a of the and that could achieve by a of socialist the modernist projects were the and in the and in the a way to the on the from in to in that of would to a only in the the and to that independence a with the The of that to to the by Sisi Enterprises to the In to the and the of a to to as an to it as a of their with in their of to explore the the to for or visions of of The of a socialist drive-in is of the and contradictory of and development that were debated in Tanzania in the decades drive-in the of in Dar es National Development and es is to that socialism, like modernity, was in Tanzania, and that the leading to socialist development was was on to or socialist and of socialism in Tanzania, the and often thing that to is President Nyerere's on development and the state's to of socialist The was by to Tanzanian socialism from its and was not or it was of a and to that were and that and were Nyerere's of socialism was in a vision of the as In Africa, and and to the of the and under the of a was the that Tanzania to development on the resources it and was in for the did not it was to the it could the the out the on socialism, the of of the and the for development in the use of state resources for urban and industrial projects that the in when to electricity, as as and the nation resources on urban Nyerere's and and alternative of the was by many to the of the but was not the only of the family with a vision or a the family of Tanzanian African National in government and the and of the nation who their at were a of and by and for the that was Tanzania The of and of the of the of many of were were by the but that did not that or of who were with that only through could for were in and regarded as to of were of the to their ties to foreign capital and the of the that was to the of capital out of the for the of commonly for their to that the industrial as the most in and the one to to a the at the opening for the that were not only but The for a to socialist of in the Development was the National Development Corporation in was a commercial in and and and the it was the or of the of most of in industrial and were the was to vision of a drive-in might to a of project a or at the were and to ownership it a of to such an The was in the in but it was only in the that the drive-in at the same as of their American and and many in the of the were only a of on the as the in in of a in with the cinema with the operating in the or Dar es was of for to to their former colonial on but the drive-in on at one for cars, a a a for from the and and the and it was on with operating in at the At the did not to to the were in the In that the drive-in to from development at the and from their of the by the drive-in and that was a to a Sisi Enterprises most of the African as a was the by the Yet of were and most were for the with a of was the only on the to a drive-in in the were not in the but were in their for modernity, and was a of in opening a drive-in a and only in the to did and the were and of the that their drive-in was one of only a on the and that with it was the only one not with owners from At a when Tanzania as the African for from to the and of the drive-in provided it may Sisi Enterprises for the that African socialism could the not with but with as well. In to one of the most to a the drive-in the in and to and the most of the The of a of a drive-in the of the from on of the in not only with and but with the on the the as as the for one for the of that the as their was a in In Dar es Tanzanian the of their by for in a that the that to several men who the a the the and the as in at the many of to but the most that Sisi Enterprises was one of the in the that were not with or from Sisi Enterprises Nyerere's for and resources to The drive-in was the state a percent in its of a percent from to from in to in At a when the state of to and and Sisi Enterprises a of for In to the of the and were The on and entirely the In percent of the by to and an percent of were through for and for and the and often of their on or and that could not their needs, the drive-in of and that and several by The of the was in the was the in the nation to to its to the of leading the with and a of its The and films were from but the and frequently the was and out it from the drive-in was of the was and the most in the The of a drive-in is on the ownership of private cars, that was a of and state in the urban of development, as private ownership was to urban and to Dar es In the early 1970s, percent of in the were in the the the of private in a nation equality was an and most of the to on their to them, and their to was not in for in or of the to but it was not until that in the nation's capital was nationalized or that the state its in and of the ownership as of their for modernity, and of as was an in as In the private ownership In were a in the and most of were or in and were operating in Tanzania, with the in private ownership was the of many a Tanzanian The a but in the 1970s, men most of the cars, did most of the and most of the were for of the and many of from the granted to individuals for the of to a of African in Dar es a was often a provided for in the of state-owned and of to the for of that of men that could on and and of the or to a and who as a in the 1960s and 1970s, that were and were to for who a that an could for in a for when was In the the family for of in Dar es was ownership the of who was a at a of in men were not In the were ownership was and by campaigns to In an in to the of the their for and their to a government who out for as as to their government and that from by from the of The the use of limited foreign exchange to such as to and to the consumption of by of the the minister of who for not was one of the that to the as of the in and in as the was to a socialist by the government and the who socialist of it to Yet at the same that was and government for their of Vice-President and the of were for the drive-in with C. C. Patel. could as a way to with the who to to their to the or their to to for the National the was by limited to the example and on the state-owned the a nation to socialism its foreign exchange Yet while was the in of the to socialist development and of the state were a for the at the was on way to the of the minister of the minister for and development and their were the and in the from the of their officials at a drive-in for the from opening of the were to the in were to and of of and Development and And The drive-in desires of ownership in the decades the drive-in a to is with to and it provided of the and the with an and a to that were on the In of in the that in for a drive-in to to and an with their What Tanzanian men in the for in the and their as often as did their to in the African and through the of and not but and may as a of but many ownership as that independence The were not the only who that the of independence was to with the of the colonial and by a did many who to the of on and from leading in and the was in Tanzania not only for of but for of African and as a leading from was most for in as to that in and with many and a for Yet as a to to state socialism and for the of Marxist of the and a of the of when by the was out of when of a of at the in to that from the and from as minister of was the same of when the of was a of the in the a in leading in the Tanzanian was as did not by The drive-in to for and that were of as and from the through the many of were on the Dar es African between and and the by percent from to or the were on the of colonial in was to to in the only when it was to who in colonial were to out of the of when were to and in Dar es were to out of the The of the drive-in was on to as as colonial of space to to one to that drive-in the of by as The in the to the it was a with through the by a to the was The drive-in and to the of a of the a only as and who or frequently the as an that and on their way to the drive-in from their in and was a in and of with cars, out for the drive-in as early as the as to the as the the and that were by Sisi was by an space for the and from and who came to and were in for by from African and of to to the or with and the of a to to the were by men who on a Tanzanian the drive-in of for not a private with a The was that were at the that it did not to and young was a of young men could on the or in the the from the the cinema would with of or who could not the could not the but an of were to the in the a and the of that were the of was a of building a socialist and the drive-in many to a space as to to the of the and to only for the who came to Dar es from of the the drive-in a While its with the that when in one could to the of the were to a or in a who in that the of and to the an and for the many in but of drive-in was like a of who to Dar es from at the of in was a at the but that not as a urban until a with a to the that as like a of and use of a and a but the was for was by to to the in with Yet a from to to the drive-in as the of the In cars, but their to but was like the drive-in to was at its most a for leisure and not as a to a the goal of independence was in to the drive-in was it was In to a example of the of African socialism, the and were a and perhaps example of In a was by and and most and were were one of the that from the the same leisure films provided for to their and frequently and a The on an from the of the to the and of the While the of equality by may is that it to and and to and as well. The drive-in was a for in was and could in for as often on the Tanzanian to their in to for their as in a for and to as their their way the in the when and from to the drive-in on a who and to the drive-in or in that a to to with their for an with and of to the drive-in as a as and it was to under and that could in for who the drive-in for that and the were of the but with the in as way of the their as a of to the of and for In the most drive-in to of that the would at the of to to do to the of in but it to the and of a of the with to to not what say their but The who were in Dar es of on the the and their their American in the and many that the the in it was and to with their could the to the and in it was a thing to do with the family on could to the and the could or and could and the with in who an avid to to the when young the cinema with in is and with the the are and is in are to was a and would to at the the to the or to with in an At the of Nyerere's vision of African socialism was a on a family under the of a who not on but on these of building socialism, were to a family or who to these at the In the was on men to not and for their but and leisure and family as well. National independence heralded a of on many and the drive-in was one of these and were and it was as a to the family and out to and the drive-in was the most to in and out for a as a and and from of with were that that to the drive-in as a we to to the we to to the would it was to a it to and was a to to the drive-in it that as the of the it was to out to the to at a for an of for several of family and of that was what a was to that the drive-in was one of the a that to the drive-in our only of the only the family could in of what it to a or a responsible and the as was the the at in time, and of often came with In Dar es the decades a ability to family out for a on the and to leisure not only with but with and was an of a modernity, as as an of responsible urban While many and were in African and it was for leisure to a family was not only the it was and socialist as well. a the drive-in a and could and their as urban and a for space in a at the drive-in the was a a with to of the in the that one of the of an at the drive-in was to to to and with the to out of the and as as the to with of as the of the In was at the way at the of at the was young at the time, and not to the of in Dar es was not the to and in a of the as a of the and such was a of the early independence a nation that was to a of the drive-in provided an for its to as a with were in of Tanzanian socialism, the and at the to the drive-in was one that In of that was one of the and of the The was and for and when their of to the drive-in when were was like a that one and to and and of the of was the until by in the we were in the a and our way the was an or would out of the and out on the of the would or and the for and While with in and men and and and and and to out the and it the as that of a with and the of in as as an at a time, but it the it was were for leisure or could on their desires the at the drive-in did the at the one could their of the drive-in the was and it in and as one could the most against the regime and of and and of in for and consumption and by The to the drive-in was in the it the only did a the to but who were were not for limited was that for would is of the in was state or the to the but and was for to and are that are commonly with socialism and and in Tanzania the and 1980s were of name was at or was only in limited and of and the and to Tanzania to for or as an at the in when was in a in the a the with a and to an can of on and on the an of could with the What a use of a while for the to and their to the The was an of abundance; consumptive desires were The on the for the at the may and the of the but on was out their and and who in to the The that the drive-in in the Nyerere's vision of socialist with what family would or or would and could not one would and a of to when family could on their of the drive-in of for as of the former not only and but the of or The and at the drive-in in the way that and of one could when of the in the of we could to at the who the was of ability to with and and were in of the were as as are of the from many was the to in only at the as as to the that for of the cinema was in a of their of the with and and The of the drive-in as an was by the it The drive-in not for and but for the and by socialism as well. the drive-in that and were to was an could on the that came to at the would a or a with many it was a of who and of a with who to In the of in Tanzania, as in the in the in the or who was often with and was a to men who were in a their of to the drive-in in the 1980s to when was and that it was one of the and to The socialist of to an American in Tanzania who an for the thing Dar es socialist was that was and was in one way or another. At the drive-in a of would a of with the provided by through their with it a the The drive-in was a for a it was an space and were only for a at is a on and in of it as a in the former and East often of the the and of under in their of and for the that to the the In Tanzania, many of the 1960s and 1970s, or the colonial Yet as in on is not it is by and What for in their of the is the can for the drive-in for a and and in these the and the are often who in the their of the or the early of with the a in and with and and a that the would The drive-in is in it is with the of a in and that who from their to the 1960s and and for the and in the with early The drive-in is a it provided space and for these to with the and the of the the was that with Tanzanian socialism, but the drive-in was one the state and private provided the and it to the of socialism and and Sisi Enterprises by The company was when as in and the and our or the of Dar es came to the Yet were that the drive-in to do with the may the but it was the who on the space by the who urban to in of their and in of the were in urban of the and and the drive-in was a of for the who the of its of the drive-in are of family out in in with and the the a or at the drive-in was the of and for it was a of often the in their that was it was from the of were and The of for family leisure was to and as to as the of a from a in Dar es in and are to The and that were for and most who was at the drive-in with of that are to and to In the the of the drive-in to as Tanzanian socialism and was and was the were in the Tanzania was to the of its it to the films from the their and their of that on was for such as and The of to the that a for a family the In from the and for and In Tanzania, are for that might is a it and to while their or that what their to is that are for the when a desires could with a of on In the that the to politicians to with from the state Sisi Enterprises was of a in for in the drive-in to one of its the Tanzania to the of Sisi Enterprises from from to and and In the the of state-owned were to for and their were The embassy that on the by the drive-in a for the of socialism and the of Yet the for a but not vision can as out as the the embassy at the drive-in were a for a who came of in Dar es in the 1960s and 1970s. often socialism is as it were only and of but of a socialist drive-in that such a a and debated and many but the drive-in as a and space a young nation's were and are urban or with for the to and who and provided on of and provided by who at the of the African in and the in The and for the to and on by with who with on in Tanzania, many a to on socialism and the of the state in

Tsuneo Yoshikuni

The stormy years which Salisbury underwent immediately after World War II present a singular contrast to the politically tranquil pre-1945 era. Yet, looked upon as a people's history, the postwar urban protest had long historical roots: it was very much the consummation of the urban traditions and organizations which the people had created in the prewar years.Before the early 1930s Salisbury's African community was a segmented and decentralized one. Urban institutions and associations did exist, but the town's ‘preindustrial’ topography and other circumstances hardly encouraged the interlocking of workers' institutions and the growth of a ‘self-conscious’ community. But after the Depression the community was considerably structured and centralized. Instrumental in this development was the Mashonaland Native Welfare Society, which promoted sports and recreation among urban Africans for the social control purposes. Many sport and social clubs, old and new, came under the Society's umbrella, with their daily activities coordinated by the Sports and Games Committee.After 1942 the people were outgrowing the Welfare Society's basic tenets. Location residents took a greater interest in improving living conditions, seeking a more autonomous power. Clubs and societies in the meantime distanced themselves from the Welfare Society. A few community activists even espoused political radicalism, when they joined the Labour Party's African Branch, and had C. Mzingeli, the Branch chairman and a former ICU activist, as their leader.The postwar years witnessed a groundswell of labour and community protest, and the ascendency of the re-constructed ICU to the apex of urban politics. The situation, though it might appear totally novel, was in many ways the product of prewar urban traditions: the Reformed ICU was launched by African Labourites, who were also long-established community leaders. Behind the grassroots mobilization by the Union, moreover, lay the growing structuring and centralization of the urban community.

B. Balamurugan, T. Poongodi, M. R. Manu, S. Karthikeyan · 5 authors

The moving image archive of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) includes a copy of the film The Double Day (1975), cataloged in the series Moving Images Relating to International Development Programs and Activities, 1979–1991, a collection of more than eight hundred titles “created to provide information on assistance programs supported by the Agency for International Development (AID).”1 Yet, The Double Day does not, in fact, directly depict or engage with any specific development or aid initiative. Instead, the film—directed by US-based Brazilian filmmaker Helena Solberg as part of the International Women’s Film Project collective and described as “the first Latin American feminist documentary”—examines the gendered dynamics of paid and unpaid labor through the testimonies of women from Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Mexico.2 Its presence in the USAID archive is likely a consequence of its funding history, having received support from the Inter-American Foundation, a USAID-affiliated entity; the development agencies of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden; the United Nations Development Program; and US philanthropist Calvin Cafritz.3These transnational funding structures not only enabled the film’s production but also determined its archival destination, which renders legible its place within the history of international development.4 The Double Day’s institutional trajectory reflects the shifting configurations of aid, gender, and media during a historic moment when women were being repositioned at the center of what Arturo Escobar has described as development’s “regimes of visuality.”5 Especially relevant to The Double Day’s production and exhibition was the international institutional framework of Women in Development (WID). Emerging in the early 1970s and culminating in United Nations’ proclamation of 1975 as International Women’s Year, WID emphasized women’s participation in the global economy as both an index and mechanism of development. Indeed, The Double Day premiered at the World Conference of the International Women’s Year, held in Mexico City.6 Within this context, the film forms part of a broader trajectory of media use by international organizations that intensified during the 1970s—as best exemplified by Media Habitat, a collection of 236 documentary films commissioned by the United Nations to represent urban and rural development initiatives for the 1976 Habitat Conference on Human Settlements in Vancouver. As a policy-shaping initiative, Media Habitat primarily featured films from the Global South intended not only to illustrate but also to help codify standardized audiovisual markers of “underdevelopment” that determined access to the emerging global economic order and to international aid.7Framed in relation to these international institutions and their operations, The Double Day could similarly be considered “development media”—exemplifying the type of nonfiction media produced and distributed outside of the commercial film circuits whose aspects and subcategories have been variously described in scholarship as nontheatrical, useful, sponsored, institutional, industrial, educational, or nonprofessional/amateur.8 Scholars working in this area have emphasized the institutional contexts of such media’s production and exhibition infrastructures as shaping its instrumentalized effects. From a feminist perspective, such an approach is crucial to grappling with the broader question of how “gender impacts [these works’] shape, content, and trajectories.”9 Yet we also argue that, taken in isolation, the institutional and infrastructural contexts are insufficient to account for the complex relationship between media and development, potentially not only limiting our understanding of the reach and impact of development but also distorting our interpretive conclusions. For example, to categorize The Double Day as “development media” is to overlook the film’s place within Solberg’s directorial oeuvre, as well as within the histories of both transnational women’s filmmaking and radical Latin American documentary cinema to which it simultaneously belongs. Such exclusive framing is especially limiting given that women globally were disproportionately engaged in nonfiction production throughout the twentieth century—sometimes by political choice but more often due to structural exclusions from fiction filmmaking. Even in nonfiction historiography, however, institutional media has remained particularly marginal, reinforcing hierarchies that separate such works from the aesthetic and authorial frameworks through which film history has been constructed.10 This marginalization not only tends to erase women’s contributions but also presumes a “weak” or derivative authorship, rendering these films unworthy of the interpretive attention needed to apprehend their aesthetic and political complexity.11 The same dynamic is likely to structure assumptions about “development media” as well.Categorizing The Double Day exclusively within this category would further prompt us to assume top-down institutional analyses that have been characteristic of both institutional media methodologies and the scholarship on development at large. This, in turn, would risk obscuring this film’s radical Marxist approach to women’s labor as well as its concrete contribution to activism and its attendant grassroot structures. In Mexico City, The Double Day became a catalyst for feminist solidarity in practice when one of the film’s protagonists, Bolivian activist and trade unionist Domitila Barrios de Chungara, was invited to participate in the Tribune of Non-Governmental Organizations held alongside the official UN conference.12 There, Barrios de Chungara challenged Western feminist priorities by reframing the debate around labor, class, and imperialism, helping to articulate a shared Third World feminist agenda that significantly departed from the developmentalist vision of the United Nations and USAID.13 Seen through the lens of activist media, The Double Day helped forge transnational solidarity networks by enabling information exchange across the diverse voices that shaped its making—from the women featured in the film to the activists who circulated it—revealing a considerably more dynamic interplay between institutional and grassroots or contingent media practices.Moreover, the film’s Latin American context—reflected in Solberg’s formation in Brazil as the only woman in Cinema Novo, its focus on women from across the region, and its premiere and key reception in Mexico City—requires grappling with the regional specificities of the very notion of development in its multiple iterations.14 Far from being an epistemological and political framework imposed solely by the Global North, both the practices of development and the theoretical foundations of developmentalism (understood as a broad and polysemic set of discourses) were shaped through the active participation of Latin American economists.15 Within this iteration, underdevelopment, as a constitutive notion of developmentalism, became central to a distinctly critical strand, which by the late 1960s became known as the dependency theory.16 This same approach is reflected in some of the best-known Latin American radical film manifestos of the time, arising precisely from the same milieus to which Solberg belonged.17These various considerations of the film’s history illustrate the methodological challenges confronting feminist scholars seeking to assess the impact of development on media projects, theories, and practices. To disregard the developmentalist context of such works by emphasizing their political aesthetics and affects risks reproducing a romanticized narrative of heroic resistance (albeit from a feminist perspective). Yet to engage exclusively with their institutional and material infrastructures risks naturalizing developmentalism’s political and epistemological foundations at the expense of the goals and beliefs of the many women who participated in these projects. The contradictions and ambivalences that animate such histories call for feminist frameworks capable of holding both institutional complicity and radical possibility in view.This challenge resonates with ongoing debates about the politics of the archive and what Allyson Field has termed “the practice of informed speculation.”18 As she reminds us, feminist, queer, and decolonial methodologies have long taught us to “press at the limits” of the archive to “inoculate our scholarship against our evidence’s afflictions.”19 The concern that the evidence we draw on in our analysis reproduces the very structures and blind spots of the dominant ideology and therefore shapes and delimits our interpretation becomes particularly urgent when engaging the developmentalist media corpus. Informed speculation offers an alternative by inviting the experimental, creative, and speculative rewriting of history, mobilizing the archive “in a project that runs counter to the original purpose, or the imperative to preserve, or the conditions that led to erasure.”20 Yet, as Field cautions, such speculative gestures must remain grounded in a deep and “intimate familiarity with the archive” that we are working with and against. Building on this imperative, we suggest that the developmentalist archive, in particular, demands expansion and critical reconsideration in ways that unsettle the very disciplinary frameworks through which it has been studied as well as the larger institutional contexts for such knowledge production.Our focus on The Double Day in the opening of this introduction thus foregrounds the entanglements of institutional and grassroots forces, local and international contexts, structural and interpersonal relations, and creative and economic factors that have shaped not only this film but the broader ecosystem of development media projects—and their preservation—over time. Addressing such a constellation involves transgressing methodologically entrenched divisions between political economy and aesthetics, between material infrastructures and affective regimes; reckoning with divergent periodizations across film history and world economics; and situating these within the local specificities of women’s movements and international institutional programs. It also demands attentiveness to the coexistence of multiple, and sometimes competing, understandings of development—each historically, geographically, and ideologically situated.We imagine this special issue as an opening toward a critical dialogue, not only about how such an approach might be enacted in practice but also about the far-reaching ways development paradigms have shaped both our objects of study and the contours of the field itself. The decision to center institutionally sponsored films across all the essays in this issue is deliberate and enables us to highlight institutional critique as a vital methodological imperative within our analytical framework. Created within the frameworks of international organizations, state agencies, or NGOs, these films’ histories make legible the institutional logics that underwrite their production. Yet our critique does not stop at these specific entities. Rather, we argue for a broader interrogation of the political conditions and institutional infrastructures that shape media and knowledge production more generally. This includes contemporary corporations embedded in the digital platform economy, from streaming services to the rapid expansion of AI. Equally critical is a reflexive examination of academia itself, where departments of economics, political science, and centers for development have played a formative role in producing and legitimizing developmentalist theories and policy frameworks. While the humanities and arts have at times offered critical alternatives, they have also frequently mirrored and reinforced many of the same developmentalist assumptions. A feminist analysis of the nexus between development and media must therefore unsettle not only dominant archives but also the institutional and disciplinary foundations of our own scholarly practices.As scholars, we share the complex position of navigating the same tensions between institutional complicity and emancipatory aspiration as many of the media-makers whose work we study. Mirroring our subjects is also the transnational, collective mode of this special issue’s own production as it emerges from an ongoing informal working group we have sustained over several years. While relying on institutional and disciplinary affordances—such as university funding for conferences or access to academic publishing platforms—we have been working toward creating a community that exceeds, and often resists, the prevailing logics of our academic institutions. Our aim has been to create a space for shared inquiry and mutual support that pushes back against disciplinary siloing and technocratic neoliberal assessment modes of both labor and knowledge production—and this certainly extends to our experience collaborating with the journal editors throughout the publication process. Our goal has been to examine both the persistence and variability of developmentalism, understood as what Gustavo Esteva calls a “powerful but fragile semantic constellation,” as a conceptual formation that has historically inspired, legitimized, and mobilized media projects across Asia, Africa, and Latin America.21 And gendered biopolitics, from population control to gender mainstreaming, have remained integral to development policies and media practices, recurring across formats from institutional newsreels to film festivals.We share the conviction that, far beyond the history of nonfiction institutional media, development (as both a broad ideological project and a network of material and institutional practices) and developmentalism (as a set of discourses and theoretical models associated with development) have exerted a far-reaching influence on film and media cultures at large. As such, they must be treated as a major force in shaping global film and media systems and also the many ongoing assumptions behind their critical discourses. The discipline of communication studies was founded on modernization theory governed by Cold War goals of dissemination of Western liberal democracy around the world, while “an area studies framework allowed compartmentalizing Western and non-Western outcomes of technologies that were always claimed to be universal.”22 Despite critique from postcolonial and critical race studies, many of these frameworks have remained foundational for media theory.23 In historical scholarship, as we increasingly move beyond “modernity” as a dominant conceptual anchor, engaging with practices and discourses of development opens more precise analytical pathways. These film and media’s entanglements with the logics of and economic and the associated with as well as their conceptual underdevelopment, and impact in as diverse as and of media aesthetic and paradigms in film and film and funding are developmentalist assumptions to the they to underwrite the narrative and logics of and global media from the structure of the film to the cultures of argue that a examination of the historical entanglements between film and developmentalist aesthetics, modes of as well as infrastructures and critical the and that our contemporary media is a of the historical contours of development as a field of inquiry embedded within a of some of the methodologies by the featured in this special a of this complex history, to the larger at in media, development, and gender all its development a it as an of be with practices as divergent as and in In as we work on this the of the of the USAID the ideological that have the history of international the and of this on the global its a from development as a global practice and as an institutional and which over the has as a with its own media Yet or does not erase the historical impact of these the contradictions they have reflected and over the as the of development several crucial to the economic theories of development initiatives to and through the of the development an international policy framework at from the Global to the of the Global the by the political role of and the of the International the on was challenged by dependency theory and at development as global structural the neoliberal of the the Programs by the and World imposed and as conditions for and forms of assistance became known as the major markers for international development development has moving beyond economic to such as the Human Development and the Development and from international organizations such as the United Nations to a broader network of These frameworks increasingly of and liberal of and with what in many ways to various while the of the to development’s epistemological more scholarship has toward a of its and material the field has to a of and critical by and scholars, which development as a dynamic of conceptual and political to these the studies in this special issue call for sustained analysis in place of In we draw from a of and that in of of gender and to this special issue engage that and from Mexico to contemporary specific local historical of global distinctly feminist methodologies as well as attention to studies that this issue a in the global history of development on and documentary work in Mexico how early women infrastructures as of while US films an early of state and transnational on a outside the Global as the of developmentalist both the and markers of development media, its to the and Latin central grounded in archival also women’s in transnational and the methodological of archives on study of the series to a a digital media not by but by women not as but as subjects and within circuits of neoliberal and the aesthetics and of how development’s has models of to contemporary neoliberal paradigms of and analysis how digital and gender and practices, discourses on and their of these essays the of some of the historical of developmentalist as the question of the role of the state within such on a notion of economic as a and the dominant of development that the state as the for and through infrastructural projects. This understanding of development was shared across both of the as well as in the Third The United and the increasingly mobilized international in the of the modes of international at the postcolonial of policy and ideological These programs were at the expansion of their and of while with the and decolonial of The conceptual between modernization and development that the Cold in of and hierarchies of that long and As an of postcolonial their role as of international aid concern about the of Western development projects. In alternative across the Global South that to structural between and through policies of and In many they were further the global structures. In Latin for example, this approach was through organizations such as the United Nations for Latin and the both developmentalist projects and their have taken many forms historically, and they have and they have been to a of projects, and postcolonial and development has been and in ways and with frequently political While many of these alternative frameworks the embedded in dominant Western they often technocratic and assumptions. gender and gender as for the of to be shaped by This becomes particularly in the media that of development where women frequently a crucial associated with and women were as both the subjects and of their participation in the and labor often as the index of In this study of from the 1970s how women were as of this as these about women’s urban and recurring and of a within the own of and critique that official examination of archives and enables a feminist interrogation of their mobilizing a of the in the of contribution to this issue similarly the of a dynamic within as well as across ideological the of women’s and the media of the and as active in labor and as integral to the technocratic women became of as their labor remained a of and analysis and archival with attention to the specific of and It also transnational that as a and affective a nexus of and practices through which gender, media, and developmentalism one film not as a but as part of the of alongside and work a broader concern of this special media as a of developmentalist projects. The debates the World and which international such as the United Nations and a critical historical for such primarily by postcolonial and of the for the of media and communication infrastructures in as to counter Western The a between and economic how systems of media and reinforced global hierarchies of and in an agenda that supported and alternative media infrastructures across postcolonial contexts, the framework gender as an analytical This “gender in the 1970s by of the Women in Development in relation to The Double its political critique of with its broader to center women in development policy through and This was also in of media, which was shaped by its international reach and audiovisual production and and and Yet, as WID institutional it also to the and of the women’s development programs often by in These were by a of studies, and on and the to of women’s presence and through the of their economic and In this on the filmmaker this history directly by the and of for women by the WID framework during the with and agencies the of and against Women in at the of the neoliberal turn, when institutional media often the only to access and support to projects. The an by this dynamic as of the from the Global South are to engage with the developmentalist assumptions funding models that their similarly the as a in developmentalist media history by the of and centers on the Film a between of and the attention toward the and labor by and work was foundational the of and the of audiovisual aid, as both a of development projects and a critical for their the in this issue argue for a with media, gender, and developmentalism as an field of that is and shaped by feminist and methodologies and that challenge the entanglements between academic knowledge production and and technocratic development And while methodological these dynamics at the structural the of feminist in media and cinema by this the very a