Creative industries policies and conditions of cinema labor in Colombia in the 21st century

Censorship, clientelism and bureaucracy: Production cultures in Colombian state-owned media system

“…The scenario depicted so far is similar to comparable studies from Global North settings where flexible forms of work are the norm in the CCI. We see in the Colombian context a greater reliance on lower-paid, more precarious work, which places a higher demand on personal resources (Castano-Echeverri, 2017; Jongbloed and Corredor-Aristizábal, 2020). However, we may see unique colours to the well-known picture of precarity in the CCI in the connection to, and dependency on, government organisational cultures.…”

“…RTVC includes two state-run and state-funded television channels (Señal Colombia – SC, and Señal Institucional), four radio stations, and one online video platform (RTVC Play). Colombia’s film industry is likewise heavily reliant on government support (Jongbloed and Corredor-Aristizábal, 2020), and the government’s current intentions to make the nation the CCI’s heartland on the continent have opened up financial opportunities to new participants like software and game developers. Governments in Latin America have a long history of owning, supporting, and generating media material, some of which is referred to as ‘public’ (Fox, 1988), having a substantial effect on media production ecologies, cultures, contents and outcomes (Matos, 2012).…”

“…The continual emphasis on the CCI’s economic advantages, in contrast to allegations of informal labour patterns and precarity in the sector, has piqued Latam researchers’ interest in the issue. Critics have begun to offer a more critical and reflexive account of media/creative workers’ experiences and perceptions of the field, paving the way for a new path for the study of creative work in Latin America that includes both a political economy focus and a much-needed detailed study of workers’ agency from a cultural studies perspective (Castano-Echeverri, 2017, Castano-Echeverri and Correa-González, 2021; García-Canclini and Piedras, 2013; Jongbloed and Corredor-Aristizábal, 2020; Piñón, 2016). Nevertheless, there is still a pressing need for more empirical data that delivers evidence about the working conditions across the different fields in the Latam CCI to establish how local specificities add to the existing knowledge on the topic (Alacovska and Gill, 2019).…”

Despair in Colombian Films on Displacement – Shifting from Noir Western to Western Noir

“…Two cinema laws, one in 2003 and the other in 2012, have allowed for an increase in the production of films and of employability in this creative industry. Despite the growth in film production, viewership numbers are still down, and the increase of international production has yet to reach all the workers on this industry (Rivera-Betancur, 2019;Uribe-Jongbloed & Corredor, 2020). But the increase in films available for national consumption has heralded a new opportunity: to come to grips with our own troubled past through the narratives of the present.…”