The Fiction of Evidence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7413/2281813819616Keywords:
Film Theory, Memory Studies, Archival Critique, Critical Media Studies, Sociology of mediaAbstract
Chiquinquirá 15 de mayo (2023) reconstructs a traumatic Colombian event using only archival television footage. Though the event occurred, the widely shared memory of its live broadcast is false—no such transmission exists. The film becomes a case study in how collective memory forms around emotionally-credible but fabricated images. Drawing on film theory, memory studies, and archival critique, this essay examines the mythopoetic function of audiovisual media. It argues that moving images do not record reality but generate the sensation of truth. In post-conflict contexts, wherein video is used as legal evidence, such affective mechanisms reveal deep epistemological instability.
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