[ecrea] Call for Papers: Film Funding for Latin American cinemas

*CALL FOR PAPERS*

*Deadline: February 28th, 2018*

**

*Latin America/Spain/Europe:*

*Economic and Aesthetic Perspectives on Film Funding for Latin American 
cinemas since the 1990s*

*International Symposium, hosted by Paris-Sorbonne University, June 
12-13,** 2018^*


New research within the field of film studies in recent years has 
focused on the globalization of film production, funding and 
circulation. The low cost of digital technology has also furthered 
cinema’s reach in circulation and production output. Additionally, 
transnational cinema scholarship has focused more specifically on the 
production and circulation of “world cinemas” and their aesthetics. 
Moreover, film festival studies has recently examined the role of film 
festivals themselves as producers, which in addition to exhibiting 
festival films, are also producing them as part of their programming. 
The common factor to all of these production initiatives is that 
practically all European and Latin American productions rely massively 
on state support, without which it would be extremely difficult for them 
to be produced and distributed at all.

Since the mid 1990s, France and Europe were the main players in the 
battles for cultural “exception” and later “diversity,” which has 
resulted in the creation of film funds aimed at supporting “Global 
South” or “world cinemas.” From the French and European point of view, 
the purpose of these funds is in part of a larger strategy to make 
Europe a symbol of resistance against US liberal hegemony.

The issues at stake are at once diplomatic, cultural and economic. For 
one, there are lobbying efforts to make the UNESCO Convention prevail 
over the WTO’s more commercial approach to conceptualizing cultural 
industries. This underscores the cultural value of these funds: they 
work to position Europe as an alternative center in the face of US 
domination and they give it a prestige capable of making it a ‘Land of 
Refuge’ on an international level. At the same time, it should be noted 
that the Latin American countries that benefited the most from these 
supports are also those that developed (for the first time in history in 
some cases) funding supports for national filmmaking in Latin America. 
This is why it is necessary to discuss two dimensions of institutional 
support to Latin American cinema: on an international (European) level 
and on a national one. On an international level, Europe has much to 
gain in terms of a positive diplomatic image, especially when the films 
supported by these funds gain critical success and festival attention 
that underline their “quality” which helps to position them within an 
“auteur cinema” genre considered as the counterpoint of the more 
commercial Hollywood cinema. Finally, from an economic point of view, 
these funds also play a significant role: though their loans are 
generally modest (with some exceptions), they lead to relative success 
at the box office and improve European cinema exports on the screens of 
the beneficiary countries. The question of this visibility of the 
European-support of Latin American cinema is fundamental, and involves 
asking to what extent the European stamp of approval is part of their 
critical and/or box office success.

In sum, Latin American art house film production maintains close 
relations with European film industries, and is one of the main 
beneficiaries of these funds that might be seen as a defense against the 
US hegemony on the continent. The purpose of this conference is to 
interrogate the relationship between European institutions (national as 
well as at local level) and Latin American cinemas, on the following topics:

*- Economics and financing**:*this angle will look at the impact of 
Latin American and European institutional support on film producing 
through case studies that will show if there is, from a budgetary point 
of view, a predominant kind of art house cinema. Conversely,  scholars 
may argue that these funds nurture a form of diversity within production 
formats, supporting low budget as well as more expensive films. These 
studies will be viewed within the production context of each country: it 
will also be necessary to consider to what extent and to what proportion 
these funds contribute to support emerging cinemas versus the more 
established  film industries, that relies on significant public support 
at a local or regional level. The diplomatic angle will be examined in 
comparing some Global North countries which utilize different cultural 
policies and stipluations for these funds. Papers can also include a 
study of the hierarchies that are invariably set up between Global North 
policies and Global South beneficiaries: how restrictive are these 
funds, and what is at stake for both parties?

*- Circulation and distribution**:*If film fund support is key in 
maintaining  Global South diversity in film production, the problem of 
its distribution is of equal importance. Indeed, most films, once 
produced, have had the greatest difficulty in finding their audiences. 
Public television support as well as the role of film festivals as a key 
site for global circulation of Latin American cinema will be examined. 
Investigations of theatrical distribution of these films are welcomed, 
both in Europe as well as in Latin America, in order to see how films 
 have circulated in different periods of time from both quantitative 
(number of theaters and weeks) and qualitative (type of theaters and 
circuits they access on both sides of the Atlantic) angles. Furthermore, 
other digital distribution platforms such as online, through initiatives 
which encourage legal downloads alongside piracy platforms, cine-clubs, 
cultural institutions and universities shall be also considered here.

*- Critical and Public Reception**:*film reception studies, from both 
quantitative and qualitative perspectives will be viewed in comparative 
perspective. We will observe the number of spectators and of critical 
reviews for films in Europe as well as in Latin America, in order to 
analyze the (im)balances that can occur regarding their broadcasting in 
general. In addition, we will study the way these films are critically 
received in the popular press in order to understand the possible 
differing views that emerge depending on their reception. The European 
critical discourses which either laud the films unproblematically, or 
conversely, use age-worn stereotypes about Latin America will be a 
central topic of discussion in this thematic approach in which films are 
understood at both ends of the production and distribution chain.

*- aesthetic**:*This topic will focus on narrative content. Thus, just 
as we shall examine  film production formats supported by these funds, 
we shall look at their content from an aesthetic as well as a thematic 
perspective, in order to assess the reality of the “diversity” that 
these mechanisms are supposed to support; that is, against the 
commercial dynamics symbolized by  Hollywood productions. We shall here 
examine aesthetic, thematic, narrative and ideological categories in 
order to think about the capacity to impose or at least foster certain 
forms and topics that is often attributed to these funds. We shall work 
to demonstrate to what extent they contribute (or not) to produce and 
broadcast some standard tropes that the European imaginary considers to 
be contemporary Latin America. That is stereotypes often limited to a 
series of sensational or exploitative clichés (drug trade and violence, 
poverty and social and economic crisis), based on an aesthetic that is 
associated with the typical “festival film” (sequence shots, slow 
narratives, scarce dialogues).

*Scientific Committee:*

Nancy Berthier, Josetxo Cerdán de los Arcos, Tamara Falicov, Marina 
Moguillansky, Deborah Shaw, Ana Vinuela

*Organizing Committee:*

Julie Amiot-Guillouet, Alejandro Izquierdo, Sergi Ramos Alquezar

Proposals shall be sent (title and 200-word abstract) by *February 28th, 
2018 *to:

(julie.amiot-guillouet /at/ paris-sorbonne.fr) 
<mailto:(julie.amiot-guillouet /at/ paris-sorbonne.fr)>

(sergi.ramos-alquezar /at/ paris-sorbonne.fr) 
<mailto:(sergi.ramos-alquezar /at/ paris-sorbonne.fr)>

(aleazur /at/ gmail.com) <mailto:(aleazur /at/ gmail.com)>

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