Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution (Cultural Histories of Cinema)

Shadow Economies of Cinema: Mapping Informal Film Distribution (Cultural Histories of Cinema)

How do people access movies today? What are the most popular and powerful channels for media distribution on a global scale? How are film industries changing in the face of media convergence and digitisation? To answer questions such as these, argues Ramon Lobato, we must shift our gaze away from the legal film business and toward cinema's shadow economies. All around the world, films are bought from roadside stalls, local markets, and grocery stores; they are illegally downloaded and streamed; they are watched in makeshift video clubs, on street corners, and in restaurants, shops and bars. International film culture in its actually-existing forms is a messy affair, and it relies to a great extent on black and grey media markets. Examining the industrial dynamics of these subterranean film networks across a number of different sites – from Los Angeles to Lagos, Melbourne to Mexico City – this book shows how they constitute a central rather than marginal part of audiovisual culture and commerce. Combining film industry analysis with cultural theory, Shadow Economies of Cinema opens up a new area of inquiry for cinema studies, putting industry research into dialogue with wider debates about economic informality and commodity circulation. Written in an accessible style, this book offers an original 'bottom-up' perspective on the global cinema industry for researchers and students in film studies, cultural studies, and media and communications. “Shadow Economies of Cinema is a strong addition to the literature on contemporary industry studies. It also demonstrates an admirable grasp of wide range of fields upon which cinema studies is starting to impinge. Lobato ends with a call for cinema studies "to open up a dialogue with other fields that specialise in cultural circulation from anthropology to economics."” ―Screening the Past “Shadow Economies is a valuable contribution to reimagine the experience of cinema beyond the classic focus on representation. International in its scope, and lucid in its theoretical exposition, it will find interest among academic and non-academic readers.” ―Senses of Cinema “From the US video economy to illegal peer-to-peer file sharing, Shadow Economies of Cinema offers a cross-nation, formal/informal mapping of some of the complexities of film distribution, seeking to foreground areas of the field that are largely unquantifiable and do not necessarily appear in the trade press.” ―New Review of Film and Television Studies How do people access movies today? What are the most popular and powerful channels for media distribution on a global scale? How are film industries changing in the face of media convergence and digitisation? To answer questions such as these, argues Ramon Lobato, we must shift our gaze away from the legal film business and toward cinema's shadow economies. All around the world, films are bought from roadside stalls, local markets, and grocery stores; they are illegally downloaded and streamed; they are watched in makeshift video clubs, on street corners, and in restaurants, shops and bars. International film culture in its actually-existing forms is a messy affair, and it relies to a great extent on black and grey media markets. Examining the industrial dynamics of these subterranean film networks across a number of different sites – from Los Angeles to Lagos, Melbourne to Mexico City – this book shows how they constitute a central rather than marginal part of audiovisual culture and commerce. Combining film industry analysis with cultural theory, Shadow Economies of Cinema opens up a new area of inquiry for cinema studies, putting industry research into dialogue with wider debates about economic informality and commodity circulation. Written in an accessible style, this book offers an original 'bottom-up' perspective on the global cinema industry for researchers and students in film studies, cultural studies, and media and communications. Ramon Lobato is Senior Research Fellow in the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia. His books include Shadow Economies of Cinema (BFI 2012), The Informal Media Economy (2015, with J Thomas), and Geoblocking and Global Video Culture (2016, with J Meese). His latest monograph, Netflix Nations: The Geography of Digital Distribution, will be published in 2019. LEE GRIEVESON is Professor of Media History at University College London, UK. He is the author of 'Policing Cinema: Movies and Censorship in Early Twentieth Century America (2004); co-editor, with Colin MacCabe, of 'Empire and Film' and 'Film and the End of Empire' (BFI, 2011) and 'Cinema and the Wealth of Nations: Media, Capital, and the Liberal World System' (2018). Haidee Wasson is Distinguished University Research Professor of Film and Media at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. She is author and editor of multiple volumes, including Museum Movies: The Museum of Modern Art and the Birth of Art Cinema (2005), E