Coming To A Screen Near You: The Future of Cinema 1/2021 - WACC Global
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1/2021
Coming To A Screen Near You:
The Future of Cinema
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Cover artwork: Brad Collicott
Published in Canada
ISSN 0143-5558
2 Media Development 1/2021
a
Vol. LXVII 1/2021
4 Editorial 36 Richard Attenborough’s Oh!
What a Lovely War
5 Streaming stress; pandemic
Philip Lee
panic
Heidi Ippolito
40 On the screen
9 What’s to come in faith and film
John P. Ferré
13 The future of cinema is the
future of us all
Gabriella Lettini
16 Erase una vez el cine
In the next issue
Carlos A. Valle
The 2/2021 issue of Media
20 New trends watching films in
Development will focus on the legacy
Australia
of the 1980 MacBride Commission
David Griffiths
for the Study of Communication
23 Ten significant themes in cinema Problems and what it might
development in the 2010s have had to say about the digital
Peter Malone transformation of society. The
issue will include reflections by
29 Why film festivals can (not) Juan Somavia, one of the original
inherit cinema culture MacBride Commissioners.
Lars Henrik Gass
33 The end of cinema at the edges
of social life
S. Brent Plate
3 Media Development 1/2021
EDITORIAL surprises us and registers with us as funny
or accurate or maybe amazing, maybe even
amazingly beautiful… A good movie can take
It’s a difficult question. Why do people need
you out of your dull funk and the hopelessness
cinema? Is it merely to take us out of ourselves,
that so often goes with slipping into a theatre;
to relieve ourselves temporarily of the burdens
a good movie can make you feel alive again,
of life? Is it simply a form of escapism from the
in contact, not just lost in another city. Good
day-to-day problems that beset us – personal,
movies make you care, make you believe in
familial, financial, moral, spiritual?
possibilities again.”
In The Cat’s Table (2011), Michael
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic,
Ondaatje tells of a 16th century Dutch tapestry
which intermittently closed cinemas, the way
hanging in an Italian villa and depicting a
audiences viewed and perceived films was
garden scene. “These were tapestries that had
changing. Film streaming platforms together
been woven in cold attics in some northern
with technological advances were giving
country – places that may never have seen a
audiences the option of where and when to
wild boar or a dove or the lush greenery that
watch. No longer was sitting in a crowd in
was found in them.” A window onto a different
relative silence and darkness the accepted way
world. Is that what cinema offers?
of viewing a film. No longer was it necessary
When the Lumière Brothers first screened
to pay the cost of several tickets: a single
films in late 19th century Paris, ordinary people
low payment could suffice for several people
saw themselves for the first time. Workers
to watch together. And they could choose
coming out of a factory, the arrival of a train at
from a broad menu of old to recent films that
a station, politicians getting off a boat. Glimpses
algorithms suggested might be to their liking.
of the lives of others. Photography and moving
The way films are made changed in the
images immediately fascinated people who
same way that they had changed when film
previously only had scant recognition of their
moved from the cinema to television. “This film
existence. In the UK, the earliest known home
has been modified from the original version. It
movies were made by Alfred Passmore in 1902,
has been formatted to fit your screen.” Film
showing his family at home in south London
production embraced digital technologies,
and on holiday on the south coast.
which added several layers to the creative
Following in the steps of the Lumière
imagination.
Brothers, Georges Méliès is credited with
Today, the film industry is becoming more
creating film narration: documentaries,
and more IT-intensive and technologically
comedies, historical reconstructions, dramas,
advanced. For example, key aspects of
magic tricks, and féeries (fairy stories).When
filmmaking – from video editing, to animation,
films began to tell stories, they identified
to visual effects (VFX) – are all moving to the
and expressed the hopes and fears of those
cloud. The cloud helps solve data complexities
watching. They focused on archetypes and
that face film production, including real-
stereotypes symbolic of the realities of the
time access to data sets from any global
human condition: life, death, love, conflict,
location. Major film studios are working with
success, failure, temptation, judgement, and the
production teams distributed around the
coexistence of good and evil. People flocked to
world to collaborate on top-secret film projects.
see them.
With feature film data sets in the cloud, these
What was the appeal? In her book Raising
postproduction editors are able to access data
Kane and Other Essays (1971), American film
from anywhere and studios can be confident
critic Pauline Kael wrote, “At the movies we
that their next blockbuster is protected.
want a different kind of truth, something that
With the introduction of virtual reality
4 Media Development 1/2021
(VR) and 360º video, major studio players
will want to offer moviegoers the ultimate Streaming stress;
immersive experience. They are expecting
widespread consumer adoption of VR to pandemic panic
grow, as well as theatre/cinema adaption
to accommodate the new medium. And
Heidi Ippolito
as VR technology advances and becomes
2020 has been a year of apocalyptic
more seamless, it opens up more options for
filmmakers to tell stories, making both short revelations in the U.S., uncovering
and long form content viable. national failings and imaginative
With the rise in quality and affordability alternatives amidst turbulent times.
of 4K TV, streaming services, and home theatre An inadequate national response to a
systems, more people will likely stay in to watch
global pandemic, raging environmental
movies. The industry will have to find ways to
corner the market with better stories, more disasters, a chaotic presidential election,
attention to quality filmmaking (not simply and an ongoing reckoning for racial
sticking to a formula), and high production inequity and police violence.
standards. Viewers are no longer ignorant
of cinematic techniques and they recognise
innovation and imagination. M ost of these narratives are intertwined,
further complicating microcosmic chan-
ges to corporate industries, public offices, and in-
On the distribution side, the big studios
are likely to take over the Netflix model and dividual lives. One major question that has been
do it themselves, so customers will subscribe brewing for the past few years was brought to
to the Universal or the Paramount channel for boiling point with international lockdowns in
exclusive content. This concept has already been response to the widespread Covid-19 pandemic:
tried and tested by major symphony orchestras What are we watching? And perhaps more im-
like the Berlin Philharmonic, which has its portantly, how are we watching?
own state-of-the-art audio and video recording Even before movie theatres temporari-
facilities and its own Digital Concert Hall. ly closed their doors and half the nation began
Articles in this issue of Media Development binge-watching everything in their Netflix
explore different aspects of cinema’s future, queues, the entertainment industry contended
recognising that people need art, drama, with growing concerns about the encroaching in-
literature, music, and film in order to help make fluence of internet-distributed content, or what
media studies scholar Amanda Lotz calls “Por-
tals” (e.g., Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Amazon Prime
Video, Disney Plus, etc.).1 Media scholars and
journalists conjecture that we may be moving
into a “post-TV” or “post-network” era,2 but does
this also mean the end of cinema as we know it?
Funded primarily by subscribers (rather
than the legacy models of TV advertising and
movie theatre box office profits), Portals are ush-
ering in a new era of watching that simultan-
sense of the world and to find meaning. Even
eously promises more viewer control as well as
so, we should recall the wise words of Alfredo
algorithmic suggestions that cater to individual
in Cinema Paradiso, “Life isn’t like in the movies.
viewer tastes. Far removed from the days of gath-
Life is much harder.” n
5 Media Development 1/2021
ering around the “boob tube” or waiting in line movie palaces and push back against the popu-
for the latest midnight movie premiere, we now larity (and award eligibility) of digital stream-
have access to a multitude of Portals through ing,3 audiences seem quite comfortable within
a variety of devices, blurring the lines between the expanding spectrum of on-screen storytell-
film, TV show, and online video into a swarm of ing. With widespread movie theatre shutdowns
seemingly endless on-screen storytelling. due to the pandemic,4 massive restructures of the
I define on-screen stories as scripted film and entertainment industry,5 and a growing abun-
television programming accessed on or created dance of internet-distributed content, there is a
for multiple screens, including movie theatres, concern that audiences will no longer crave the
TVs, laptops, gaming consoles, and smart phones. movie theatre experience.
For the purposes of this article I will focus on Movies and TV shows were conceived
how these shifts have affected our understanding and developed with different aims, but in re-
of film and television in particular, and what is at cent years, they seem to be coalescing toward a
stake for the future of on-screen storytelling. kindred resemblance. Though they have separ-
This major shift has influenced both content ate origin stories, perhaps we should understand
and form for on-screen storytelling – the rise of them within the same “universe,” much like the
Portals has influenced not only what we watch, Marvel and DC Universes that frequently flash
but also how we watch. Thematically, there has across our screens. Instead of clinging to estab-
been a shift toward niche programming. Rather lished definitions, we should begin to understand
than attempting to appeal to mass audiences with how our notions of “movies” and “television” are
summer blockbusters and holiday season Oscar “less defined by how the content gets to us and
bait, Portals are able to offer original films cre- what we view it on than by the set of experiences
ated in-house (e.g., “Netflix originals”) as well as and practices we’ve long associated with the ac-
acquired films from other media conglomerates. tivity of viewing.”6
These Portals tend to distribute a wider variety of In other words, we can practice similar
content compared to their risk-averse counter- watching rituals (“activity of viewing”) across
parts who must meet the finicky demands of different modes of watching (“what we view it
box-office success. For example, horror-thriller on”). Lotz’s words are particularly insightful as
Bird Box (2018), Oscar-nominated crime drama we consider the future of on-screen storytelling:
The Irishman (2019), and teen romantic comedy we must contend with how our watching rituals
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You (2020) are all have (or have not) shifted, rather than fixate on
Netflix original films. While Bird Box and The purist categories of “film” or “television.”7
Irishman opened in theatres as well as online, To
All the Boys is a streaming exclusive. Watching rituals that create community
Netflix has the ability to finance such an One way to explore this is by examining the re-
assortment titles because ultimately, they all be- lationship between our watching rituals and our
come part of the Netflix library; no matter how ideas of community. The “specialness” of the mov-
many times each title is viewed (on the couch ie theatre experience is often marked by com-
or in the theatre), the overall profits still rely on munal aspects: sharing an evening with friends
monthly subscriptions rather than the success of and strangers in a dark room lit by a larger-than-
any particular film. Legacy film and TV compan- life screen and peppered with smells of popcorn
ies also produce diverse content, but the shift to and whispers of delight. Legacy TV touts similar
internet-distribution allows for success outside selling points: audiences across the nation circle
of box office numbers, award season fanfare, and around their TVs in a simultaneous viewing ex-
real-time viewership tracked by Neilson ratings. perience that is further discussed around water
Even as some filmmakers romanticize coolers the following day. The internet-distribut-
6 Media Development 1/2021
ed models of Portals, however, seem to cater to These are co-creative activities: how and
a more individualistic approach: watch anything, what we watch creates community, and the people
anywhere, anytime. Even though we watch TV in our communities influence how and what we
and movies separately (in different spaces as well watch. Several writers have observed the myriad
as different places) through our Portals, we still of ways that watching from home during a viral
yearn for community and seek out ways to “gather” pandemic has affected our watching rituals. In a
in virtual spaces to discuss what (and how) we poignant piece about social life during isolation,
are watching. Doreen St. Félix declares that “live streaming [on
For most of 2020, flocking to movie the- social media], which once seemed to presage the
atres was no longer an immediate option, but dissolution of human intimacy, now looks like its
audiences have found other ways to enjoy com- preservation.”9 While some viewers experienced
munal aspects of watching. Several local theatres an overall discomfort toward people hugging
offered the opportunity to support the theatrical and touching each other on screen (a reflection
experience from home. In my own city of Denver, of how pandemic life instantly made us see the
CO, the Sie Film Center (home of Denver Film) world through a new lens), others masochistically
offered exclusive access to internet-streamed leaned further into content that emphasized feel-
premieres through their “Virtual Cinema” (in- ings of claustrophobia, constraint, and anxiety.10
cluding snack boxes available for pick-up at the Stuck-at-home screenwriters were called
theatre), drive-in movies at the Red Rocks Am- upon to imagine how on-screen characters might
phitheater, and hybrid options for the 43rd an- handle the pandemic and, even more ominously,
nual Denver Film Festival.8 Quarantine-bound how they might write the “ending” of 2020, as
friends and families embraced the idea of “virtual if we had all been cast in a film about this roller
watch parties” by taking advantage of platforms coaster of a year.11 With ample time to research
like Twitch, Discord, and Zoom. Soon after these and reflect, artists and critics fuelled by decades
do-it-yourself models took off, media companies of exclusion were suddenly sparked by this year’s
took notice and created official versions of their nation-wide Black Lives Matter protests to dig
own, including Teleparty (formally Netflix Party) deeper into issues of equity and on-screen rep-
and GroupWatch on Disney Plus. resentation.12 The events of 2020 have certainly
7 Media Development 1/2021
highlighted our divisions, but they also reveal our now, more than ever, we should lean into the
desire to unite, connect, and heal. communal experiences of on-screen storytelling,
where watching goes beyond consumption and
The cyclical nostalgia of communal experiences into a realm of co-creative reconnection with our
beloved communities. n
The ritual of going to the movies will never be
fully replaced by the way we watch movies at
Notes
home, just as watching the latest Game of Thrones 1. The term “Portals” was coined by Amanda D. Lotz in Portals:
episode feels different when you watch on Sunday A Treatise on Internet-Distributed Television, Kindle edition
night with all your friends, compared to watching (Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, 2017).
2. Lotz, The Television Will Be Revolutionized (New York: NYU
it alone, several days after it airs. Even those who Press, 2014); Michael Strangelove, Post-TV: Piracy, Cord-
can afford surround sound and giant flat screen Cutting, and the Future of Television (Toronto: University of
TVs, nothing can quite replicate the sensations Toronto Press, 2015); Graeme Turner, ed., Television Studies
After TV (New York: Routledge, 2009); James Poniewozik,
generated by a room full of eager watchers: the “The Post-Television TV Era Has Begun,” Time, October
urgency of arriving on time, the smell of someone 30, 2014, http://time.com/3547960/simpsons-world-hbo-
streaming-tv/
else’s snacks, the anticipation when the trailers or 3. Internet-distributed films initially gained Oscar eligibility
commercials end, and the booming laughter that only if they had a short theatrical run ahead of official
erupts from everyone in the room simultaneously. streaming releases. Bird Box was one of the first Netflix
films to pioneer this approach (Dami Lee, “Netflix Will
Ultimately, I do not believe films are in any Release 10 Fall Films in Theaters before They Stream,”
kind of dire state. No matter how many Netflix The Verge, August 27, 2019, https://www.theverge.
com/2019/8/27/20835697/netflix-fall-movie-lineup-
shows we watch, people will still want to go to theatrical-release-steven-soderbergh-laundromat-
the movies. We are in an improvisational age of martin-scorsese-irishman; Gregg Kilday, “Oscars: In the
“yes, and…”: gleefully accepting new modes and Steven Spielberg-Netflix Debate, Who Really Wins?,”
The Hollywood Reporter, March 12, 2019, https://www.
mentalities when it comes to our watching habits. hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-steven-spielberg-
We want to scroll through TikTok videos on our netflix-debate-who-wins-1193934; Scott Feinberg, “Oscars
During Coronavirus: Academy Rules Streamed Films
phones as well as buy a ticket to see blockbuster Eligible, Merges Sound Categories,” The Hollywood Reporter,
films in the theatre; we crave reality TV comfort April 28, 2020, https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/
food alongside arthouse dramas and experimental oscars-coronavirus-academy-rules-streamed-films-eligible-
merges-sound-categories-1292043
horror series. In a world where we can order din- 4. Ryan Faughnder, “Will Movie Theaters — and Moviegoing
ner, drinks, and a beanbag from the couch, we are — Survive Coronavirus Closures?,” Los Angeles Times,
no longer concerned about whether Oscar films March 25, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-
arts/business/story/2020-03-25/movie-theaters-recover-
and Saturday morning cartoons can be enjoyed coronavirus-closures; Anousha Sakoui and Ryan Faughnder,
from the same spot. After all, we may be stuck in “Hollywood Faces Huge Losses from Coronavirus. Can the
Insurance Industry Bail It Out?,” Los Angeles Times, March
these spots for quite some time. 27, 2020, https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/
So where do we go from here? Henry Jen- business/story/2020-03-27/hollywood-is-shut-down-and-
kins’ reflections on collective imagination pro- facing-losses-can-the-insurance-industry-bail-it-out
5. Eriq Gardner, “Judge Agrees to End Paramount Consent
vide guiding inspiration for the future: “Imagin- Decrees,” The Hollywood Reporter, August 7, 2020, https://
ation is not something we consume or inherit but www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/judge-agrees-end-
paramount-consent-decrees-1306387; Julia Alexander,
something we actively produce together, some- “Streaming Was Part of the Future — Now It’s the Only
thing we do. We can watch imagining happen; Future,” The Verge, October 28, 2020, https://www.theverge.
we can hear the voices of people engaged in acts com/21536842/streaming-disney-hbo-max-peacock-cbs-
all-access-warnermedia-viacom-nbcuniversal; Amanda Hess,
of imagining. We are in the room where it hap- “Celebrity Culture Is Burning,” The New York Times, March
pens.”13 30, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/arts/virus-
celebrities.html
But what kind of room do we currently find 6. Lotz, The Television Will be Revolutionized, 35.
ourselves in, amidst a global pandemic, political 7. Amanda Lotz, “Q12: Is Netflix Television and What
unrest, and general unease? In this time of in- Is the Future of Television?,” Amanda D. Lotz (blog),
July 13, 2020, http://www.amandalotz.com/netflix-30-
stitutional suspicion and public distrust, perhaps qa/2020/7/13/q12-is-netflix-television-and-what-is-
8 Media Development 1/2021
What’s to come in
the-future-of-television; Amanda Lotz, “Q23: Is Netflix
a Television or Movie Service?,” Amanda D. Lotz (blog),
August 20, 2020, http://www.amandalotz.com/netflix-30-
qa/2020/8/20/q23-is-netflix-a-television-or-movie-service
8. John Wenzel, “Now You Can Support a Local Art House, a
Film Festival as They Move to Streaming amid Coronavirus
faith and film
Outbreak,” The Know, March 24, 2020, https://theknow.
denverpost.com/2020/03/24/sie-filmcenter-aspen-
John P. Ferré
shortsfest-colorado-film-coronavirus/235918/; John
Wenzel, “Film on the Rocks Back in August with First-Ever The last decade has been a strong one for
Drive-in Movie Series at Red Rocks,” The Know, August
6, 2020, https://theknow.denverpost.com/2020/08/06/ critically acclaimed movies about faith.
film-on-the-rocks-schedule-2021-red-rocks-drive-
in/243054/; Laura Daily and Bryan K. Chavez, “Watch
With the exception of Spotlight, the
a Movie in a Socially-Distanced ‘Pod’ under the Stars $20 million Universal Studios release
in Aurora,” The Know, August 3, 2020, https://theknow.
denverpost.com/2020/08/03/free-cheap-things-to-do- about the Boston Globe’s investigation
august-2020/242749/; John Wenzel, “All the Denver Film of paedophile priests that won Academy
Fest Movies You’ll Be Able to Watch from the Comfort
of Your Own Couch,” The Know, October 2, 2020, https:// Awards for Best Picture and Best
theknow.denverpost.com/2020/10/02/denver-film-fest-
2020-virtual-screenings/246242/
Original Screenplay, movies about faith
9. Doreen St Félix, “What We’re Watching Under Quarantine,” have been independent productions made
The New Yorker, March 23, 2020, https://www.newyorker.
com/magazine/2020/03/30/what-were-watching-under- with modest budgets.
quarantine
W adjda, the 2012 Saudi Arabian movie about
10. Elahe Izadi, “Our TVs Are Full of Characters Spreading
Germs and Now We Can Never Unsee It,” Washington Post,
March 24, 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts- spunky subversion of rigid religious cul-
entertainment/2020/03/24/tv-movies-during-coronavirus/; ture, won three awards at the Venice Film Fes-
Inkoo Kang, “Critic’s Notebook: Why ‘90 Day Fiancé’ and
‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Are Perfect Quarantine Viewing,”
tival, including the INTERFILM Award for
The Hollywood Reporter, March 30, 2020, https://www. Promoting Interreligious Dialogue. Ida, the 2013
hollywoodreporter.com/news/why-90-day-fianc-portrait- Polish movie about family, identity, and commit-
a-lady-fire-are-perfect-quarantine-viewing-1287368?utm_
medium=social; ment, won an Academy Award for Best Foreign
11. Maria Elena Fernandez, “If I Wrote a Coronavirus Episode,” Language Film. First Reformed, Paul Schrader’s
Vulture, April 2, 2020, https://www.vulture.com/2020/04/
if-i-wrote-a-coronavirus-episode.html; Maura Judkis, film about a pastor’s spiritual crisis, won a Critics’
“2020 Reads like a TV Script. So We Asked Screenwriters Choice Movie Award for Best Original Screen-
How It Should End.,” Washington Post, October 27, 2020,
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/how-will-
play in 2019. That year also saw the Polish mov-
pandemic-election-2020-end/2020/10/26/4af0e452-11b7- ie about anguish and redemption, Corpus Chris-
11eb-bc10-40b25382f1be_story.html ti, receive the Europa Cinemas Label at Venice
12. Kyle Buchanan and Reggie Ugwu, “Why Are There So Few
Black Directors in the Criterion Collection?,” The New given to boost international distribution of im-
York Times, August 20, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/ portant films.
interactive/2020/08/20/movies/criterion-collection-african-
americans.html But, like movies of all kinds, movies about
13. Henry Jenkins, Gabriel Peters-Lazaro, and Sangita faith – even the best ones – face an uncertain
Shresthova, eds., Popular Culture and the Civic Imagination
(NYU Press, 2020), quoted in “Returning to the Civic future. Already before the 2020 Lenten season,
Imagination Project: New Publications,” Confessions of an which began with Covid-19 breaking out in Eur-
Aca-Fan (blog), March 23, 2020, http://henryjenkins.org/ ope and ended with the first million people in-
blog/2020/3/14/returning-to-the-civic-imagination-project-
new-publications. fected around the world, per capita attendance at
movie houses was in decline almost everywhere
Heidi Ippolito is a third year PhD student in the Joint Doctoral in the world except for China. Major studios
Program at the University of Denver and Iliff School of Theology. were releasing fewer titles and spending more on
She holds an MLitt in Theology, Imagination and the Arts at
the University of St. Andrews in Scotland and a BA in Cinema- blockbuster franchises. With fewer tickets being
Television (Critical Studies) at the University of Southern sold for fewer movies, cinemas were forced to
California.
consolidate, reducing the number of venues for
9 Media Development 1/2021
screening movies that cannot promise the rev- films in 2019 were directed by women, a nominal
enue return of mega-budget productions. improvement over the 9% figure from 2008. The
The pandemic had an immediate impact on Academy Awards have been just as unkind to fe-
the movie industry. Production scaled way down male film directors. Only one woman, Kathryn
and scheduled releases were postponed. Theatres Bigelow, has won an Oscar for Best Director (for
closed and festivals were cancelled, postponed, or The Hurt Locker in 2010).
moved online. Funding for new films diminished. Lauzen’s research also shows that the
Video streaming, by contrast, flourished. Stream- gender imbalance in film directing is decreas-
ing giant Netflix added 26 million subscribers in ing in the world of independent films. In 2008,
the first six months of 2020 and by mid-Octo- women directed 22% of independent films. By
ber reported a total of 195 million subscribers 2019, that figure had increased to 38%. Also by
worldwide, over half outside the United States. 2019, women were directing 42% of independent
“It will take a lot of time, some box of- documentary films and 33% of independent nar-
fice gambles and perhaps even a vaccine before rative features. To maintain this momentum, the
enough fans are comfortable sitting in a darkened Swedish Film Institute has promoted “50/50 by
room alongside hundreds of strangers to laugh 2020,” a campaign for gender parity in film fes-
and gasp in unison – or even just breathe the tivals. Over 100 film festivals – including Cannes,
same air,” says Time magazine’s Eliana Dockter- Venice, and Berlin – have signed on. That is good
man. news for today’s film school graduates, half of
Compounded by the pandemic, ongoing whom are women.
changes in the movie industry will affect movies It’s also good news for the future of note-
about faith for some time to come. These chan- worthy movies about faith, many of which are
ges include who makes the movies, the genres of independent films directed by women. One re-
the movies they make, and the way the movies cent example is the 2017 animated feature, The
are watched. Breadwinner, directed by Ireland’s Nora Twoney.
Appealing to children and adults alike, The Bread-
winner tells the story of a resourceful 11-year-
Women directors
old Afghan girl named Parvana whose fath-
Women have directed films at least since Alice
er has been unjustly imprisoned by the Taliban.
Guy-Blaché directed The Life of Christ in 1906,
Supporting her family falls on the shoulders of
but to this day most films have been directed by
Parvana, who disguises herself as a boy to evade
men. The so-called “celluloid ceiling” is trouble-
the Taliban’s violent misogyny. The Breadwinner
some, cultural critic Amanda Fortini explained
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best
recently in Playboy, “because the people who tell
Animated Feature.
our stories, and the actors who embody them,
Following The Breadwinner a year later was
shape our culture, our reality. If all the storytell-
the American dramatic film, The Miseducation of
ers are men, society will continue to believe that
Cameron Post, directed by Desiree Akhavan. In
only men are entitled to speak; we’ll continue to
this film, a teenaged girl is sent to God’s Prom-
live in a world that believes only men’s subjec-
ise, a gay conversion therapy centre, after her
tivity matters. The lack of jobs and the collective
evangelical Christian guardian learns about her
consciousness are not unconnected.”
same-sex relationship. Praying away the gay fails,
For Hollywood studio productions, the cel- of course, sometimes tragically, but not every-
luloid ceiling has been unyielding for female dir- one understands or cares. The Miseducation of
ectors. According to research by Martha Lauzen, Cameron Post won the Grand Jury Prize for U.S.
executive director of the Center for the Study Drama at the Sundance Film Festival.
of Women in Television & Film at San Diego
With the increasing number of women di-
State University, just 13% of the 250 top grossing
10 Media Development 1/2021recting independent films, we can expect more resemble their feature counterparts. They use ori-
films of the quality of The Breadwinner (still ginal music scores, creative camera work and edi-
above) and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, ting, protagonists and antagonists, and dramatic
which explore important issues about faith that story arcs. They are easily accessible through on-
resonate with diverse audiences. line streaming services, which use algorithms to
point viewers to both feature and documentary
Documentaries films that will likely interest them. And they ap-
peal to millennials and other viewers accustomed
Accompanying the growing number of nota-
to watching informative and entertaining videos
ble films directed by women is the popularity
on social media. It’s not surprising that the num-
of documentaries. Thom Powers, who programs
ber of feature documentaries released theatrically
documentaries for the Toronto International
in the UK and the Republic of Ireland rose from
Film Festival, says that we are experiencing “an
56 in 2009 to 99 in 2019.
undeniable golden age for documentary film-
making.” Not long ago, documentaries were con- Women are finding success as directors of
sidered lesser artistic products as a class of films, documentaries. Over the last five years, an aver-
products that were long on education but short age of two of the five documentaries that con-
on entertainment. Now they are go-to narratives, tended for an Oscar for Best Documentary Fea-
available not only on PBS and CNN, but also on ture each year were directed by women. Women
Amazon, Hulu, and Netflix. co-directed the last two winners, American Fac-
tory in 2020 and Free Solo in 2019. Even more
The rise of documentaries in the last gener-
encouraging is Lauzen’s latest study, which re-
ation has much to do with innovations in produc-
ported that nearly half of the documentaries that
tion and ease of access converging with a ready
U.S. film festivals screened last year were directed
audience. Documentaries today more and more
by at least one woman.
11 Media Development 1/2021A number of recent documentaries that movie theatres, they will continue to stream mov-
garnered critical acclaim have concerned matters ies at home because what subscription video on
of faith. One of Us (2017) examined the lives of demand lacks in movie-house screen size and the
three Hasidic Jews who broke away from their company of others, it more than makes up for in
ultra-orthodox community. The seven-part Net- convenience and value. Netflix subscribers in the
flix series, The Keepers (2017), explored the un- United States, for instance, have access to more
solved murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a than 4,000 films that they can watch at any time.
Catholic high school teacher in Baltimore who For countries such as Albania, Gibraltar, and the
was murdered in 1969 after she reported the Lao People’s Democratic Republic the number is
school’s chaplain for sexual abuse. And the six- closer to 200, but that choice is still much great-
part Netflix series, Wild Wild Country (2018) fo- er than what was available in local theatres be-
cused on the conflict and violence that followed fore the pandemic. A standard subscription costs
the building of the utopian City of Rajneeshpu- as little as $6 in Brazil and as much as $19 in
ram in north central Oregon in 1981. Last Fall’s Switzerland, about the price of one ticket to a
Chicago International Film Festival featured movie theatre. For the cost of one movie theatre
’Til Kingdom Come (2020), which examines the ticket per month, subscribers to Netflix and other
relationship between American evangelicals streaming services can watch as many movies as
who pray and pay for the second coming of Jesus they want without leaving home.
Christ and Israelis who build settlements in Oc- Given the size of the Netflix film library in
cupied Palestinian Territory. most countries, critically acclaimed films about
The popularity of documentaries combined faith will be among the selections available to
with their production quality portends the on- subscribers. In some cases, those selections are
going production of important nonfiction films Netflix productions. One is the 2018 film Come
that explore issues of spirituality. Sunday, about the African American megach-
urch preacher Bishop Carlton Pearson, who was
Streaming declared a heretic for preaching that there is no
Whoever the director and whatever the genre, Hell. In his review of the movie in Slate magazine,
movies today are most often watched through critic Lawrence Ware said, “This is an important
streaming services. Even after viewers return to movie for one simple reason: It shows why pas-
tors who question orthodoxy are often afraid to
publicly articulate
the theological and
political dilemmas
with which they
wrestle privately.”
Netflix also
produced The Two
Popes (2019) about
the unlikely friend-
ship between Pope
Benedict and the
future Pope Francis
(still left). An audi-
ence member’s re-
view of the film and
television review ag-
12 Media Development 1/2021gregator Rotten Tomatoes called The Two Popes
“one of the best, funniest and most emotional- The future of
ly-moving religious films I’ve ever seen.”
Movie streaming is unlikely to lose the cinema is the
gains that it has made over the past decade. Au-
diences will return to theatres when they feel
future of us all
that it is safe to do so because watching movies Gabriella Lettini
on large screens in the presence of others is a
visceral experience unequalled by watching mov- The early days of filmmaking led scholars,
ies on tablets and phones. But the convenience, artists, and intellectuals of the era to
the choice, and the price of streaming will keep
subscribers subscribing, and that’s good news engage in heated discussions on whether
for movies about faith, which appear on modest cinema was an artistic expression at all
home screens far more often than on the giant or merely a new form of technology and
screens at the multiplex. on how cinema was different from any
other art.
Conclusion
With changes in the world of film come oppor-
tunities for making innovative movies about any W hile some like to imagine a particular
golden moment in cinema’s history or the
right way to do filmmaking, in reality cinema has
subject, spirituality and faith included. As they
always have, filmmakers who are risk averse will always been a great many things, often in con-
let these opportunities pass and produce senti- tradiction if not in contrast with each other. In
mental movies that appeal to conventional atti- the last one hundred and twenty-five years, we
tudes and viewpoints. Others, however, will re- learned that film, like any other medium, can be
spond creatively to the changes that filmmaking used for very different ends: escapist entertain-
worldwide is experiencing in production, distri- ment, meaning-making art, totalitarian propa-
bution, and consumption. ganda, commercial exploitation, societal chal-
These innovators will make movies about lenge, historical revisionism, religious edification,
faith that intrigue viewers by questioning as- and more. We have also witnessed that cinema
sumptions and challenging prevailing viewpoints. can reflect, create, challenge, and reimagine the
Many will be directed by women, some will be world we live in.
documentaries, and all of them will be distrib- It was unavoidable that cinema would
uted online. For discerning viewers who make a change, as any other human-made reality does.
point to seek them out, these will be movies to But we should not believe that there is any linear
remember and re-watch. n way to predict what the future will hold. We can
anticipate trends, keeping in mind the complex-
John P. Ferré is a professor of communication at the University of ity of reality, and knowing that the future will
Louisville, USA, where he studies historical, religious, and ethical
dimensions of media. still surprise us, will always contain unexpected
elements, some welcome and some devastating.
As we face a new wave of the Covid-19
pandemic, we know the crisis movie theaters are
facing. Many never recovered from the first wave
of the pandemic. But the crisis of theater-going
had started much earlier, progressively brought
on by television, then VHS videos and DVDs,
and finally by streaming platforms. It is now pos-
13 Media Development 1/2021Poster by Marcellin Auzolle (1862-
1942). Source Wikipedia.
people still crave artisanal manu-
facturing. Nothing can and will
stay the same, yet changes, while
drastic, may not mean the com-
plete obliterations of old realities.
Movie theatres have mostly not
been profitable for decades and
may cease to exist as profitable
businesses. But communities will
keep smaller theatre-going ex-
periences alive, like The Palace
Cinema, Longridge, in North
West England, or the New Park-
way Theater in Oakland or the
Roxie Theater in San Francisco.
sible to watch most of what we want whenever Every local reality has its example.
we want it, from home or almost anywhere there
is a good internet connection.
Sharing different kinds of viewing experience
The crisis of theatre-going is part of the fu-
ture of cinema, yet it is not the whole story by Watching movies as a community experience
far. While many of us will forever love the rit- does not need to be identified only with the-
ual of watching movies on the big screen, in the atre-going or even physically getting together.
dark, and as part of an audience, as a collective During the current pandemic lockdowns, people
event, new technologies have reshaped our lives worldwide have creatively imagined different
and changed the theatre business. It is possible kinds of watching parties so that they could still
to imagine that theater-going will never alto- share a viewing experience, chat during it, and
gether die, as small special realities will continue discuss after the movie afterward. Human be-
to struggle to exist thanks to the passion of in- ings are creative and adaptive, and if they keep
dividuals and groups that cherish the tradition- understanding the value of communal experien-
al cinema experience. With the advent of new ces, they will keep finding ways to create them.
technologies, we have witnessed many business- Ultimately, the issue may be how to keep alive
es drastically change, given up for dead, and re- the spirit of connectivity than the theaters open.
appear in new forms for niche audiences. People In fact, because of Covid-19, in the last
had predicted that greeting cards would go out of months several film festivals had to be canceled,
business because of the advent of electronic mail. and many have yet to be rescheduled in person.
Surprisingly, in the last few years, that trend was Yet we have witnessed how film festivals were still
reversed, as many people are reclaiming some of able to take place as people streamed movies, fol-
the old forms of communication. lowed Q&A sessions online, and discussed them
Similarly, vinyl has been making a comeback on social media. Some collective experiences will
as people cherish a different listening experience. drastically change, only to adapt to new times
Traditional gaming circles have not been entire- and circumstances. It is possible if the passion is
ly replaced by online gaming. Industrial food kept alive.
production has not replaced artisanal food. The The latest experiences with online film fes-
advent of platforms like Etsy shows how many tivals should also give us pause for thought and
14 Media Development 1/2021challenge us to reconsider if the enormous costs Taika Waititi. The future of cinema will include
big international film festivals have on our en- a much greater variety of human experiences. It
vironments are worth the thrill of the experience will be Black, and Brown, and Latinx, indigenous,
for a small minority, as rewarding as it may be. transgender, queer, and allow people to tell their
International air-travel alone is devastating to stories in their own voice. The future of cinema
our planet, and climate disruption is significantly will also hopefully be less sexually exploitative, as
affecting the most underprivileged communities, women of all colours write, direct and produce
usually not part of the film festival crowds. So, I and refuse to be objectified.
hope that the future of cinema will address more The future of cinema may also continue to
issues of environmental accountability than the include an increasing number of independent
use of plastic bottles and utensils and include cli- movies funded directly by the audience through
mate justice. crowdsourcing, as people are willing to share re-
That point also brings me to ask whether sources so that more diverse and complex stories
we have a right or entitlement to endless forms and identities can be presented on screen. Art-
of entertainment, like the variety of constant ists like Sean Baker, Mark Webber, Joe Talbot,
new films and series available for streaming that Jimmie Fails, and Lara Hewitt brought us some
people are binge-watching. Cinema as business, beautiful stories through crowdsourcing, and
entertainment, and art cannot be above concerns there are examples of independent filmmakers
about how it may negatively and massively affect doing the same all over the world. If the studio
people’s lives and our planet’s well-being. The fu- industries do not invest in people’s stories, people
ture of cinema needs to include critical ethical will because storytelling is a primary need for
questions about accountability and impact. communities, and people need to see themselves
One of the ways cinema has changed and and their lives represented with truthfulness.
hopefully will continue to change dramatically
is that people traditionally underrepresented, A collective endeavour
erased, or stereotyped in film are progressively As voices traditionally erased are taking center
doing more cinema themselves. Cinema used to stage, we are also strongly reminded that cin-
be ruled by white males, telling their visions of ema has always been a collective endeavor. In
the world and their versions of history, mostly the future of cinema, we will see how the idea
reinforcing the paradigms of oppression that put of the director as original auteur, lonely creator,
them at the top. The struggles for equal rights, and artistic genius will be replaced by a sounder
liberationist movements, and the advent of digit- recognition of the collaborative and ultimately
al filmmaking and streaming have enabled new always co-creative nature of cinema. It will be
groups of people to speak for themselves, inter- interesting to see the different ways that we will
pret their own realities, correct sexist, racist, and start hearing of art, and not only movie industry,
homophobic portrayals and stories, challenging as collective.
male and colonial gazes on the “other.”
In addition, we have already seen examples
This is a change that is still happening too
of filmmaking that invites the audience not only
slowly but will only continue. It is true that US
to interpret, but to suggest, the development
and European movie studios are still largely fo-
of a story, as in the case of 2018’s Black Mirror:
cusing on and financing white and male stories,
Bandersnatch. Interactive film will be part of the
actors, and directors. Yet, alternative voices are
future of cinema and create hybrid realities that
not only emerging but taking center stage. I am
bridge gaming and traditional filmmaking and
thinking of artists like Ada DuVernay, Barry Jen-
animation. The future will continue to generate
kins, Jordan Peele, Dee Rees, Ryan Cogler, Au-
more interactive, participative, and hybrid real-
rora Guerrero, Natalia Almada, Patricia Cardoso,
ities.
15 Media Development 1/2021Not only film buffs but regular movie
watchers will continue to watch a greater num- Erase una vez el
ber of international movies, as streaming plat-
forms are normalizing the use of subtitles for cine
international cinema, something that used to be
off-putting to some audiences, like the US one.
Carlos A. Valle
This trend will hopefully open new windows to
El secreto de las películas es que son una
different worlds and worldviews.
Digital filmmaking and streaming have
ilusión. (George Lucas)
E
also allowed for the production and dissemin- ste es un mundo absorbido por un océano
ation of an unprecedented number of films of de desarrollo tecnológico del que depend-
unequal quality. While people can have direct en cada vez más los estados para su funciona-
access to anything, the choice can be overwhelm- miento como las empresas mismas y la economía
ing. The future of cinema will need even more
mundial para sus transacciones, sin entrar a de-
than before trustworthy guides and curators to
tallar como ha ido modelando la vida privada. El
help people make informed choices that support
celular, la computadora, los juegos electrónicos
quality filmmaking, centering traditionally un-
habitan permanentemente en una gran franja de
represented voices. Theologians, spiritual leaders,
and faith communities will need to keep part of la sociedad moderna, como si fuera una exten-
these efforts to curate and guide not as a renewed sión más del mismo ser humano.
form of censorship but as a way to enrich and Es este desarrollo incesante y creciente el
nurture people’s meaning-making and commun- que también ha penetrado muy marcadamente
ity building. en el mundo del cine trastocando los contenidos
We cannot imagine the future of cinema as y la estructura de sus presentaciones. Se puede
one story. It will be stories plural, and it will look hablar de escenarios creados por las computa-
like the many futures of humanity. n doras, arsenales con armas altamente sofisticadas
que abruman por su eficacia. Mientras eliminan
Rev. Dr. Gabriella Lettini is Dean of Faculty and Aurelia Henry seres sin pausa la sangre corre raudamente.
Reinhardt Professor of Theological Ethics and Director of Studies A esto se suman grandes cataclismos de
in Public Ministry at the Starr King School for the Ministry,
Graduate Theological Union (GTU), Berkeley, CA. Lettini has
la naturaleza, explosiones que destruyen ciu-
published book chapters and articles on syncretism, theology dades enteras, sin faltar invasiones de seres extra-
and culture(s), U.S. and global liberation theologies, feminist and terrestres, mayormente de extraña fisonomía, y
womanist theologies and liturgies, women and religion, movies
and religion, religion and politics, ethics, religious traditions and con intereses destructivos. Muchas de las his-
the “other.” In addition, she was the curator of the translation torias carecen de un sólido argumento aunque
into Italian of the Dictionary of Feminist Theologies. nunca falta el héroe que salva finalmente al mun-
do de un inminente fin. Las mujeres han me-
jorado su presencia e importancia aunque hasta
cierto punto
Las lecciones del pasado
Frente a esta realidad no debe olvidarse que en
su comienzo, hace un poco más de un siglo, los
creadores del cine no estaban demasiado preocu-
pados por el futuro desarrollo de su invención.
Lo consideraron un experimento científico y no
esperaron que fuera usado para propósitos masi-
16 Media Development 1/2021vos. Sin embargo, muy pronto el cine entró un en introducción del llamado “Código Hays”, que
proceso de masificación industrial. Sus objetivos siguió vigente hasta 1956.
comerciales determinaron su desarrollo y crearon Este código estableció, lo que se llamó una
una estructura particular a su alrededor. Vale la victoria pírrica. El código se impuso pero la gen-
pena recordar brevemente esta vertiginosa his- te no estaba convencida, por lo que llegó a ser un
toria. deporte bordear los límites de la censura. Así lo
Para atraer a grandes audiencias fue ne- hizo el director Cecil B. DeMille con películas
cesario ofrecerle material atractivo. Las películas basadas en temas bíblicos En este Código, por
muy pronto llegaron a ser populares, convirtién- ejemplo, el pecado fue identificado con el sexo,
dose en un invalorable vehículo de comunicación. otras formas de pecado fueron pasadas por alta.
No podemos entender el mundo actual a menos Así, el amor se resumía al romance. El erotismo y
que reconozcamos el papel del entretenimiento la sexualidad llegaron a estar disociadas del amor,
como parte de la vida pero, al mismo tiempo, que estableciendo una separación peligrosa entre
no deja de ser un factor ideológico. El entret- amor y violencia.
enimiento no es neutral. Asume una determin-
ada comprensión de la vida y el papel de hom- El cine y la experiencia humana
bre y la mujer en la sociedad. Se puede estar de El cine ha compartido la experiencia humana
acuerdo o no con una visión particular, pero no a un nivel nunca antes soñado. Cuando arribó
se debe dejar de lado las implicancias de lo que la imprenta, los maestros se asustaron porque
llamamos “entretenimiento”. su sabiduría quedaría en manos de muchos. El
compartir el conocimiento le restaría todo poder
La trascendencia del cine y perdería su control. A su manera el cine abrió
El filme tenía un carácter popular y, en aquel el debate a muchos temas humanos. Así, Kevin
momento, las iglesias no tenían un testimonio Brownlow, historiador y cineasta, en Behind the
significativo para las masas, en contraste con el Mask of Innocence, (1991) analiza la importancia
importante lugar que le atribuyó la revolución de los filmes sobre la conciencia social en la era
rusa a las películas, como en el caso de la obra del del cine mudo.
recordado director Sergei Eisenstein. La gente pudo verse y oír cómo eran y como
Los filmes llegaron a ser un instrumento les gustaría ser. El cine entró en lugares antes ve-
en la lucha por el poder y la dominación. Joseph dados. Estuvo cerca a la vez de los pobres y los
Gobbels, el muy conocido ministro de Propa- poderosos. El cine mostró a los seres humanos en
ganda de Adolf Hitler, quiso estudiar los filmes su gloria y también en su miseria. Así se puede
rusos en su búsqueda por dominar a la sociedad. entender que no tardaría en aparecer la censura.
En su momento, a su manera, esto se reflejó en el
cine que empezó a dominar en Hollywood insu- El cine y la política
flando el “American way of life”. A medida que los medios se privatizan, su poder
Las iglesias en general se manifestaron sobre la política y la cultura se amplía. Ya en 1940,
con actitudes negativas a este nuevo mundo. Al- cuando Orson Welles produjo Citizen Kane, con-
gunas tenían una cierta aversión contra el entret- siderado hoy uno de los más grandes filmes de
enimiento como tal. Aceptaban películas educa- toda la historia, mostró lo explosiva que puede
tivas, pero no con argumentos. Esta actitud de ser que una película, a partir de un personaje de
las iglesias no detuvo la marcha de la industria. ficción, criticara a un magnate de la prensa, cuya
Se establece otra estrategia. Si no se puede evitar semejanza con el real Randolph Hearst era difícil
su rechazo hay que encontrar atajos que lo con- de negar, abre la caja de Pandora de todo lo que
tengan. Esto se inicia en EEUU por el 1920, con se ocultaba de los medios mismos. El cine, que
un movimiento de censura-autocensura, con la
17 Media Development 1/2021muchos relacionaban solo con el entretenimiento, A pesar de todo, los temas, las preguntas
se convertía en un instrumento de crítica social. “religiosas” siguen inquietando a los teóricos, el
Todas las presiones posibles fueron ejer- arte. Lo santo y lo sagrado permanece como un
cidas para impedir su proyección, desde repre- tema dominante (aunque a veces disfrazado) en
salias económicas hasta la revelación de historias el arte moderno. George Steiner ha afirmado que
turbias de personajes conocidos. Esta trama hoy Shakespeare sería cineasta.
secreta del funcionamiento de los medios sobre En su momento, la imprenta produjo un
los poderes y entre los poderes, irá encontrando enorme aporte al desarrollo de la cultura y a la di-
una sofisticación y alcance cada vez mayores. Al fusión del conocimiento, pero sus alcances fueron
menos en aquel momento, lograron que la di- limitados, entre otras razones, porque la capaci-
fusión del filme fuera muy limitada y sufriera tación requerida para acceder a sus productos y
muchos perjuicios económicos. De todas man- sus costos dificultaba la posibilidad para ser ac-
eras, nunca lograron que su fama y valores se per- cesibles. La aparición de los distintos medios
dieran, por el contrario, se acrecentaron con el electrónicos se produce en un período más breve;
tiempo. Una demostración de la paradoja de los su alcance se torna masivo muy pronto, y para
controles que no pueden impedir que salga a luz acceder a ellos no es necesaria ninguna capaci-
aquello que querían destinar al olvido. tación previa.
El cine en la sociedad post moderna En la era del control
En las décadas del 60 al 90, el tratamiento de Mucho se ha hablado sobre el control de los
la religión cambia significativamente. Esta etapa medios y el control de las mentes como una rel-
está marcada por varios cambios en la sociedad, ación inevitable. Lo cierto es que las intenciones
una era de post guerra y guerra (Corea, Vietnam), de dominación no siempre logran los resulta-
revueltas estudiantiles, liberación femenina. Re- dos buscados. Del control de medios al control
vueltas también en el Este (Praga 1968, Revolu- de mentes hay una gran distancia. Habría que
ción cultural en China, etc). considerar la influencia de los elementos sociales,
Es también la época de un fuerte desarrollo culturales y religiosos. Decía Ignacio Ramonet,
de los medios audiovisuales y de la sociedad post destacado investigador de la comunicación, que
moderna. Una sociedad que ha perdido los valores el problema no está en decir que la televisión nos
tradicionales, ha acrecentado el individualismo, el manipula. Para él, el problema está en saber cómo
pluralismo cultural. La religión institucional su- manipula y esto no es tan evidente.
fre una severa crisis, que abre la puerta a formas Aquí vamos a concentrarnos en la
de retracción fundamentalista o a la amalgama gravitación que el cine ha tenido y tiene en la
de diversas expresiones religiosas. vida de la sociedad La enorme importancia de los
Los cambios en el cine a partir de la década medios de comunicación audiovisual, concentran
del 60 se destacan por el incremento comercial y cada vez más poder en el ámbito mundial, ejer-
una mayor necesidad de entretenimiento. Holly- ciendo una gran influencia en la conformación
wood empieza a dominar el mercado y así sigue de la sociedad y sus valores. Esta inusitada con-
hasta hoy. centración de poder está determinando ciertas
En Europa se acepta al cine como una nu- estructuras en la sociedad que limitan el desar-
eva forma de arte. En Francia se destaca la Nou- rollo de una sociedad plural. Esta concentración
velle Vague (Truffau, Bazin, etc.) Se abren otras de poder establece sus propias reglas de juego so-
perspectivas: neorrealismo (Rosselini, De Sica) bre el llamado “libre flujo de la información”.
cine de autor (Bergman, Fellini, Passolini, Buñuel, El cine, como otras manifestaciones del
etc.) son quienes reflejan más directamente la arte, nos enseña que una seria reflexión y cues-
problemática religiosa. tionamiento emerge de la atenta cámara, desa-
18 Media Development 1/2021You can also read
