Screens from the South: Cinematographic Integration in Mercosur
Author: Moguillansky, Marina , mmoguillansky@gmail.com
Department: Filosofía y Letras
University: Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Supervisor: Ana Amado
Year of completion: 2011
Language of dissertation: Spanish
Keywords:
Cinema
, Latin American
, Integration
, Mercosur
Areas of Research:
Communication, Knowledge and Culture
, Arts
, Economy and Society
Abstract
The creation of Mercosur involved a series of economic, social, political, cultural and symbolic innovations in the countries that signed the agreement. Some areas that were not in principle axis of the first project for regional integration, such as culture in general and cinematography in particular, gradually became part of the agenda. This dissertation examines the changes in the field of cinema in the Mercosur from its creation in 1991 until present day. The cinematic phenomenon is understood as a complex articulation formed by a set of dimensions: social actors, the structure of the industry, film policies and film aesthetic. First, the thesis shows that the social actors have developed expectations on the effects that the creation of Mercosur would have on the cinematic activity. Second, the thesis reconstructs the evolution of the project of regional integration between the film industries in three different phases: 1) transition towards the Custom Union (1991); 2) consolidation of neoliberal integration (1996-2002); and 3) the turn towards a model of complex and inclusive integration (2003-2009). In this periodization, we consider the evolution of co-productions, the exchange of releases and the formation of regional spaces for public policies. Third, the thesis displays the process that led to the creation of a regional organism for cinematographic policies (RECAM), explaining the major debates and projects until the launch of the Audiovisual Program Mercosur. The second part of the thesis examines the imaginaries in the corpus of filmic co-productions from the region, allowing us to signal the traces of the symbolic elaboration on the sociopolitical changes brought on by the process of regional integration.
