From Chinese opera to racial tensions in Malaysia, Wikipilation is the digital video library dispelling Eurocentric history one film at a time
- Wikipilation is a digital encyclopaedia of 10,000 acclaimed films and documentaries that chronicles historical injustices and current global issues
- It was produced by a Njål Helgheim, a Norwegian dad who wants to counteract the Eurocentric dominance of global cultural exchange and history education
When the creator of a digital encyclopaedia began compiling a list of acclaimed films and documentaries chronicling global historic events, he had one main goal in mind.
Njål Helgheim, 53, had watched a news report about the aftermath of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti that killed more than 250,000 people in 2010.
The Norwegian father of four said he had barely known of the existence of Haiti before meeting his Haitian wife, because the country was not part of the history curriculum in school, and rarely receives any media coverage in Norway.
“I promised myself I would help my wife make our children as proud of Haiti as she is … the Haitian revolution deserves a place near the top of the list of historical battles against injustice,” said Helgheim, a freelance copy editor. “And so, a few days later, I told them I would make some kind of history of the world where Haiti would be accorded at least one separate chapter.”
But the project grew rapidly, turning into a dedicated seven-year effort to include some 10,000 other films and documentaries from all over the world, to counteract the Eurocentric dominance of global cultural exchange and history education.