Lost in the Stream: An Overview of Online Distribution of Latin American Films Co-funded by European Film Funds
Bolesław Racięski
boleslawracieski@gmail.comUniversity of Warsaw (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1908-9039
Abstract
The main focus of this paper is to explore the impact of the ever-expanding internet SVoD and VoD services on the availability of Latin American films that receive co-funding from the Hubert Bals Fund and the World Cinema Fund. These co-funded films are typically showcased at prestigious international festivals but often struggle to reach their home countries. This lack of local distribution remains a challenge, especially as these funds openly declare the wish to suport small local film industries. After briefly investigating the streaming service landscape in Latin America, the author examines Unleashed, a platform associated with the Hubert Bals Fund. He scrutinizes the positioning of selected Latin American works to determine how the films are framed within national labels and production conditions. Following this, he explores how Netflix can serve as a distribution channel for niche cinema, using the case study of Maya Da-Rin’s film The Fever (A febre, 2019) and its distribution during the COVID-19 pandemic. His research approach involves qualitative methods, particularly semi-structured interviews, and draws from the emerging field of streaming studies.
Supporting Agencies
Keywords:
European film funds, Latin American cinemas, Hubert Bals Fund, streaming, distributionReferences
Aguilar, G., Lacunza, M., Thornton, N. (2017). Latin American Film in the Digital Age. In: M. D’Lugo, A. López, L. Podalsky (eds.), The Routledge Companion to Latin American Cinema (pp. 358-374). London: Routledge.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315720449-25
Google Scholar
Andrew, D. (2004). An Atlas of World Cinema. In: S. Dennison, S. H. Lim (eds.), Remapping World Cinema: Identity, Culture and Politics in Film (pp. 19-29). London: Wallflower Press.
Google Scholar
Arnold, S. (2016). Netflix and the Myth of Choice/Participation/Autonomy. In: K. McDonald, D. Smiths-Rowsey (eds.), The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century (pp. 49-62). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501309410.ch-004
Google Scholar
Chan, F. (2011). The International Film Festival and the Making of a National Cinema. Screen, 52 (2), pp. 253-260.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/screen/hjr012
Google Scholar
Falicov, T. (2019). Latin American Film Industries. London – New York: Bloomsbury.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781911239376
Google Scholar
Gaw, F. (2012). Algorithmic Logics and the Construction of Cultural Taste of the Netflix Recommender System. Media, Culture and Society, 44 (4), pp. 706-725.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437211053767
Google Scholar
Goldsmith, J., Wu, T. (2006). Who Controls the Internet?: Illusions of a Borderless World, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195152661.001.0001
Google Scholar
Grater, T. (2018, January 29). Rotterdam Launches Streaming Platform with Jarmusch, Payne, Arnold Titles. ScreenDaily.com. https://www.screendaily.com/news/rotterdam-launches-streaming-platform-with-jarmusch-payne-arnold-titles/5126021.article
Google Scholar
The Hubert Bals Fund Annual Report 2021-2022 (2022). Iffr.com. https://iffr.com/en/annual-report-2021-2022/hubert-bals-fund-0
Google Scholar
Introducing the Dutch Film Sector (2012). CatalogusBoekman.nl. https://catalogus. boekman.nl/pub/P12-0354.pdf
Google Scholar
Iordanova, D. (2010). Rise of the Fringe Global Cinema’s Long Tail. In: D. Iordanova, D. Martin-Jones, B. Vidal (eds.), Cinema at the Periphery (pp. 23-45). Detroit: Wayne State University Press.
Google Scholar
Lobato, R. (2022). Ways of Seeing Netflix. Studies in World Cinema, 2 (1-2), pp. 1-3.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/26659891-02010001
Google Scholar
Lotz, A. D. (2017). Portals: A Treatise on Internet-distributed Television. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing – University of Michigan Library. https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9699689
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3998/mpub.9699689
Google Scholar
Macnab, G. (2016, January 31). IFFR Unleashes VoD Initiative. ScreenDaily.com. https://www.screendaily.com/rotterdam/iffr-unleashes-vod-initiative/5099587.article
Google Scholar
Mateo, J., Gomero, G. (2018). Independent Films and Streaming Platforms: Access Difficulties for Peruvian Filmmakers. In: A. Rocha, C. Ferrás, A. Méndez-Porras, E. Jimenez Delgado (eds.), International Conference on Information Technology and Systems (pp. 562-571). Cham: Springer.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-96293-7_47
Google Scholar
Parvulescu, C., Hanzlík, J. (2021). The Peripheralization of East-Central European Film Cultures on VoD Platforms. Iluminace, 22 (2), pp. 5-25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58193/ilu.1700
Google Scholar
Rouvroy, A. (2020, March 27). Algorithmic Governmentality and the Death of Politics. GreenEuropeanJournal.eu. https://www.greeneuropeanjournal.eu/algorithmic-governmentality-and-the-death-of-politics/
Google Scholar
Shaw, D. (2007). Contemporary Latin American Cinema: Breaking into the Global Market. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.
Google Scholar
Streaming: El Pampero Cine liberó casi toda su filmografía, incluida “La Flor”, de Mariano Llinás (2020). OtrosCines.com. https://www.otroscines.com/nota?idnota=15584
Google Scholar
Thornton, N. (2022). Bridges, Streams and Dams: The Multiple Negotiated Strategies of Distribution and Access in Latin American Cinema. In: S. Baschiera, A. Fisher (eds.), World Cinema on Demand: Global Film Cultures in the Era of Online Distribution (pp. 47-67). New York – London: Bloomsbury.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781501348624.ch-003
Google Scholar
World Cinema Fund Supported Films 2004-2021 (2022). KulturstiftungDesBundes.de. https://www.kulturstiftung-des-bundes.de/fileadmin/user_upload/content_stage/ world_cinema_fund/wcf_booklet_2022_web.pdf
Google Scholar
Authors
Bolesław Racięskiboleslawracieski@gmail.com
University of Warsaw Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1908-9039
Assistant Professor at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” at the University of Warsaw. He is in charge of the research project “In Search of Authenticity: Exploring Problematic Relationships Between Latin American Filmmakers and European Film Funds,” funded by the Polish National Science Centre.
Statistics
Abstract views: 128PDF downloads: 86
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Bolesław Racięski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
The author grants the publisher a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY 4.0) to use the article in Kwartalnik Filmowy, retains full copyright, and agrees to identify the work as first having been published in Kwartalnik Filmowy should it be published or used again (download licence agreement). The journal is published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. By submitting an article, the author agrees to make it available under this licence.
In issues from 105-106 (2019) to 119 (2022) all articles were published under the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence. During this period the authors granted a royalty-free non-exclusive licence (CC BY-ND 4.0) to use their article in „Kwartalnik Filmowy”, retained full copyright, and agreed to identify the work as first having been published in our journal should it be published or used again.
