[Commlist] New book: The (new) global becoming of Argentine cinema. Policies and external markets.

New book, free access

González, Leandro (2021). /El (nuevo) devenir global del cine argentino. 
Políticas y mercados externos/. Buenos Aires: TeseoPress. URL: 
https://www.teseopress.com/cineargentino 
<https://www.teseopress.com/cineargentino>
Contact: (legonzal /at/ campus.ungs.edu.ar) <mailto:(legonzal /at/ campus.ungs.edu.ar)>

*The (new) global becoming of Argentine cinema. Policies and external 
markets.
**Abstract (english)*
Film industry has been through processes of commercialization and 
internationalization practically from its inception. Global dominance of 
Hollywood has been the most characteristic feature during the last 
century. However, the world not only consumes North American films: in 
recent decades a new global map of cinema has been shaped, which is a 
complex and polycentric map, marked by regional cooperation processes, 
international film funds and the emergence of new and renewed 
cinematographies.
In this context, the case of the Argentine cinema is emblematic: backed 
by a long trajectory that enabled to develop different kinds of 
professional skills, an internationalization process with unprecedented 
characteristics began to mature after the turn of the century. These are 
expressed in the bilateral co-production agreements signed with 
different countries, in the regional integration processes, in the 
appreciable recognition obtained in the film festival circuit and in a 
set of other factors outside the cinematographic field (such as the 
post-convertibility scenario, which generated additional incentives for 
internationalization).
The working hypothesis is that, as a result of the articulation between 
local factors and the global scenario, a new global becoming of 
Argentine cinema was produced. The investigation is organized on two 
levels: on the one hand, it addresses Argentina's participation in the 
regional cinema spaces of Mercosur and Ibero-America (RECAM and 
Ibermedia, respectively); on the other, it analyzes the presence and 
performance of Argentine cinema in the commercial theater circuit of its 
main foreign markets: Spain, Brazil and France. The analysis is focused 
in the period comprehended between years 2002-2019 and combines 
qualitative and quantitative methods: it is based on the review of 
regulations, the processing of official statistics and the realization 
of a series of field observations and interviews with various film agents.
The central theoretical sources are Cultural Studies, Political Economy 
of Communication and the contributions of Michel Foucault, from which 
are taken the materialist conception of culture, the focus on the 
institutional-legal framework and the emergence of a discourse that 
—legally registered— generates specific conditions for the circulation 
of cultural production. In addition, the characteristic features of the 
new cinema history are collected: contextual turn, methodological 
eclecticism and interdisciplinarity.
The starting point of the analysis is a world film market 
characterization, which has — contradicting general beliefs — an 
ostensible dynamism, driven mainly by developing countries and emerging 
cinematographies. Then, the Argentine participation in regional spaces 
is studied, introducing some genealogical elements of what resulted in 
the Ibermedia Program, which is a crucial experience in which Argentina 
played a leading role. Finally, each one of the case studies is focused, 
regarding the importance of considering their trajectories, their 
specificities, and their receptivity towards Argentine cinema. From a 
systemic analysis model, it will be argued that the links with Spain are 
explained to some extent by the Ibermedia experience; ties with Brazil, 
by Ibermedia and RECAM; the relationship with France, for a more 
singular and robust film policy; the whole, due to the global 
configuration of the film industry.
In this framework, international co-production will appear as a 
critical, complex and ambiguous phenomenon: on the one hand, it favors 
the internationalization of Argentine cinema; on the other, it limits 
the possibilities of appropriating its material and symbolic profits. 
The best example is that most of the Argentine films with outstanding 
commercial performance (both in foreign markets and in the domestic 
market) are co-productions with Spain. For this reason, it is argued 
that co-production is partially a mutually beneficial product, partially 
a counter-hegemonic alternative to Hollywood, partially a “necessary 
evil”, partially a “double-edged sword” and partially a new way of 
concentrating the benefits on the more powerful side. This completes a 
portrait of the configuration of cultural forms in the current world as 
juxtaposed and fragmentary. Additionally, it leads to the need to 
address some core aspects of a geopolitics of governance of global 
cultural flows, in which UNESCO and WTO are scenarios where antagonistic 
positions are manifested. In a broader sense, these aspects require 
putting into play a relational conception of power articulated with a 
controversial and conflictive conception of culture.
The contribution of this thesis lies in the fact that it offers a 
systematic and comprehensive analysis on a subject that is little 
explored in its specificity, as it uses different conceptual and 
theoretical tools from the social sciences. Furthermore, it contemplates 
the interrelationship between the material, symbolic and legal 
dimensions of films. It intends to be a contribution to the film studies 
and a resource for policy makers. At the same time, it seeks to provide 
analytical and conceptual keys to understand the circulation of culture 
in the contemporary world. It is in this complex network that a new 
global becoming of Argentine cinema unfolds, as its current development 
faces other and new transformations.


*Table of contents*
Introducción
Parte I. Coordenadas de cine
1. Aspectos teórico-metodológicos
2. Nuevas dinámicas de cooperación regional: Argentina en el programa 
Ibermedia
Parte II. Un lugar en el mundo
3. Mercados externos y socios de coproducción
4. Cine argentino en España. Integración, cooperación y competencia
5. Cine argentino en Brasil. Expansión, apertura y nuevas relaciones
6. Cine argentino en Francia. Sobre la proyección de un mapa alternativo 
para el cine de diversidad cultural
Síntesis, reflexiones y contribuciones
Epílogo: pandemia y plataformas
Bibliografía
Anexos

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