Finding Ritual in the Archive: Preservation of Raphael Montañez Ortiz’s Found Footage Films, Guest Lecture by Prof. Chon Noriega

How do we find ritual within archives built on Western epistemologies? Drawing from a decades-long relationship with Ortiz, Distinguished Professor Chon Noriega (School of Theater, Film and Television, UCLA) discusses the surprising insights during his five-year project to preserve and digitize the filmmaker’s early found-footage films and later computer-laser-videos. Moving past institutional protocols, policies, and knowledge production, this presentation shifts the focus to a deeper question: how the act of preservation uncovers unexpected spiritual and ritualistic dimensions as well as identify shift within the physical archive.

About Chon Noriega:
Chon Noriega is Distinguished Professor of Film, Television, and Digital Media at UCLA. His scholarship explores Latino arts and media through their aesthetic, social, and institutional histories. His work encompasses extensive archival preservation and research-based exhibitions, and ARTnews identified him as one of six curators “shaping the way art is presented around the globe.” Noriega directed the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center from 2002 to 2021, significantly expanding archival and library holdings, scholarly publishing, and public exhibitions and programs. He is co-founder of the National Association of Latino Independent Producers and was a Guggenheim Fellow in 2021–22. A first-generation college graduate, Noriega received his Ph.D. and M.A. from Stanford University and his B.A. from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

This event is hosted by the department of Film and Media Studies and the Latinx Humanities Research Cluster