During Professor Kathryn Ramey’s visit in May 2025, the Visual Trust project took part in the screening of the visual essay The Empty Sign at Zumzeig cinema.
Synopsis
At the intersection of ethnographic film, militant cinema, and experimental filmmaking, The Empty Sign is a committed and original visual essay about the political and cultural effects of the U.S. presence in Puerto Rico. This screening is part of the Visual Trust research project.
Combining one hundred years of found footage — propaganda films, tourism, and agriculture reels — with contemporary portraits of artists and activists, the film journeys through the complex layers of the U.S. occupation of Puerto Rico. With an experimental and ethnographic approach, the film reveals how carefully crafted American fictions about “democracy” and “debt” conceal capitalist and military domination.
The filmmaker moves away from standard documentary formats to explore, in first person, the open wounds of colonization on the island. She does so using a free and disruptive cinematic language, blending various voices and archival materials. The result is a personal and evocative essay on the (post)colonial condition, offering a deep reflection on the often-invisible traces of historical violence.
For more information: El signo vacío