Remediating Transcultural Memory

1. Introduction

A piece of black and white archival footage shows a white British journalist approaching the Caribbean calypso singer Lord Kitchener, asking him to perform a song in front of the TV cameras facing him. The scene takes place as Kitchener is about to disembark from the SS Empire Windrush docking at Tilbury on 21 June 1948. Kitchener duly performs an a cappella version of his famous calypso “London is the place for me”. Initially a piece of analogue film gauge, screened as part of a Pathe newsreel in British cinemas, this piece of archival footage has been remediated in a variety of contexts, from historical exhibitions to YouTube.1 The footage has been used in British documentaries on Caribbean migration to Britain and in the legendary ...