Some films do not merely tell stories; they summon ghosts, refusing to let history’s silences remain unbroken. They remind us that the past is not dead. It haunts us still, flickering on the edges of the frame, waiting for us to see.
The Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild is pleased to collaborate with Union College Film Studies in presenting a series of films that speak to colonialism, exploitation and erasure of histories. Each screening will include special guests and a discussion.
Cinema has always been a haunted medium. It conjures presences, traces of people, places, and events that hover between memory and erasure. This spectral quality is uniquely suited to grappling with history’s ghosts, particularly those of colonial violence, atrocities, disease, (dis)possession, and environmental devastation. Bringing together the unresolved past, troubled present, and images of the future, films like The Battle of Algiers (1966), Atlantics (2019), and We Have Just Begun (2023) use this haunting potential to explore how the past refuses to stay buried.
The massacred, the exploited, and the oppressed remain with us, demanding acknowledgment and justice. The films in this series are aggressive, nuanced, ideologically powerful, and formally innovative. They disinter “forgotten” memories, inhabit archives, and occupy cinematic form. Spectres of Empire doesn’t simply tell stories, it summons ghosts.
In The Battle of Algiers, Atlantics, and We Have Just Begun, the undead emerges as a thematic and aesthetic tool to confront the lingering ghosts of colonialism, exploitation, and erasure. The films reveal how these spirits haunt historical memory and demand justice, whether through documentary realism, supernatural storytelling, or speculative documentary—embody the instability and persistence of haunting.
The spectral qualities of this cinema is a form of resistance: To make visible the ghosts of colonialism is to demand justice for the past while confronting its ongoing presence. These films understand that cinema itself is a haunted medium. Every frame is a ghost, a captured fragment of time replayed endlessly in the present. This inherent spectrality allows filmmakers to bring erased histories and silenced voices back into view.
Spectres of Empire is curated by Jannelle Troxell
click on film title for additional information and to purchase tickets for individual screenings
We Have Just Begun, March 1, 2025, 4 PM
The Battle of Algiers, March 15, 2025, 4 PM
Atlantics, April 12, 2025, 4 PM
Copyright © 2023 Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild. All rights reserved.