Is Cinema Moving On-line?
Of course, what we all know is that whole industry is trying to face the issue of illegal ways of downloading and streaming audiovisual content. Its reaction was to establish a wide range of legal platforms to deliver its production and substitute the loss of revenues from the old system of distribution. It was a step in the right direction. As the spread of audiovisual content is wider, each platform has its own target group. They are more open to experimenting, but they cannot fight piracy at all. There still are a lot of unanswered questions concerning the development of VOD platforms. The European Commission recently started to speak about the necessity of thinking about on-line rights, in order to allow content to circulate without borders all over Europe, for at present we still deliver it on a national level. Will it help? What will happen? Diana Tabakov, project manager of VOD platform dafilms.com, tells us more about the panel that could be interesting for everybody who wants to dig deeper in to this issue.
It is not for the first time that you are hosting the panel on on-line distribution. What do you feel is different this year? What will your point of view on the issue be?
Many festivals include discussions on the transformation of distribution models in their program, especially the so-called VOD portals. In most cases they present their most successful case studies, with which they often cover up dysfunctional business models. It is clear that a transformation in distribution is occurring. As well, the way the audience receives the film is also changing. A Festival is an important distribution platform for the viability of many films (sometimes the sole platform) and that is why it is important to address these questions and to do so not by only speaking with people from the film industry, but also film theorists who can bring to the table a description of evolving film culture and help the viewers orient themselves to the paradoxical situation of simultaneous abundance and absence.
Who will the other panelists be and what are some key topics that will be discussed?
I would especially like to mention Dina Iordanova from the University of St. Andrews, a professor of Film Studies, who named her part Documentary discourses: festivals and forums. She will discuss whether cinema distribution of documentary films is nothing, but an illusion, and if the internet is the place where films are moving to, or where they are disappearing. Another guest is Domenico La Porta, who writes for Cineuropa and he will start his participation by answering the question "Where are you, viewers?". The viewers are already used to receiving cross-media content and that has to also affect the audiovisual industry.
The panel will take place on Sunday, October 26th at 2:30pm at Festival Center – Industry Room, Komenského 10
