Shadow Economies of Cinema Mapping Informal Film Distribution

by Lobato, Ramon

• ISBN13: 9781844574117
• ISBN10: 1844574113
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-15
• Publisher: British Film Institute

Summary

Shadow Economies of Cinemaexamines how films travel through time and space, both inside and outside established circuits of audiovisual trade. Combining industrial and cultural analysis, this book looks at distribution circuits from across the Americas, Africa and the Asia-Pacific, and explains how they shape film culture in their own image.

Author Biography

Ramon Lobato is a research fellow at the Swinburne Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia. Cultural Histories of Cinema Series Editors: Lee Grieveson, University College London, and Haidee Wasson, Concordia University.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgments	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
Why distribution?	p. 2
Formal and informal film economies	p. 3
Shadows, sites and circuits	p. 4
Distribution from Above and Below	p. 9
Redefining distribution: theory and practice	p. 10
Distribution from below	p. 13
The cultural politics of distribution	p. 14
Conclusion	p. 19
The Straight-to-video Slaughterhouse	p. 21
'Anything with sprocket holes'	p. 22
The STV aesthetic	p. 24
Transnational STV circuits	p. 26
Shooting and selling STV action in the Asia-Pacific	p. 30
The slaughterhouse of cinema	p. 32
Conclusion	p. 36
Informal Media Economies	p. 39
The formal and the informal	p. 39
The centrality of informality	p. 41
Informal economies of cinema	p. 43
Informality, cinema and the state	p. 47
Between formal and informal distribution: Tropa de elite	p. 49
Nollywood at Large	p. 55
A short history of the Nigerian video boom	p. 56
The formalising imperative	p. 59
Formalising international distribution	p. 63
Conclusion	p. 66
Six Faces of Piracy	p. 69
Copyright and the construction of piracy	p. 70
Piracy as theft	p. 72
Piracy as free enterprise	p. 74
Piracy as free speech	p. 76
Piracy as authorship	p. 78
Piracy as resistance	p. 80
Piracy as access	p. 82
Everyday ethics of piracy in Tepito, Mexico City	p. 85
Tepito postscript 2010	p. 91
The Grey Internet	p. 95
Mapping the online distribution ecology	p. 96
Linking sites	p. 100
Video-hosting sites	p. 101
Cyberlockers	p. 104
Informal enforcement on the digital frontier	p. 106
Conclusion	p. 109
Conclusion: Coordinates for Studying Distribution in a Digital Age	p. 111
From pipelines to swarms	p. 112
Rethinking informational freedom	p. 114
Appendix: A Film Distribution Research Guide	p. 119
Notes	p. 129
Bibliography	p. 149
Index	p. 163
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