The Archive as Confessional: The Role of Video Testimony in Understanding and Remorse

Abstract

Video archives often have a stated purpose of displaying 'understanding' for the viewer. Understanding, when applied to perpetrators, often means displaying - in the words of one victim at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission - 'what kind of man?' they are to live in the post-conflict society. This question, I suggest in this article, haunts the testimonies of people described as 'perpetrators' who speak in video archives. This article examines video archives which document the testimonials of participants in military and political conflicts, with a specific focus on that of the Prisons Memory Archive from Northern Ireland, the Fortunoff Archives of Holocaust survivor testim..