Advantages and Disadvantages of World Cinema
The term “world cinema” has a broad definition depending on the geographical area as well as the individuals involved in articulating the term in differing concepts. World cinema could be used to mean an incorporation of film production industries based on foreign origin as well as based on non-English speaking countries (Dissanayake &Guneratne, 2004). Similarly, some articles and authors have defined the term “world cinema” as the film production that is against or beyond the renowned Hollywood production industry based in the United States of America (Dissanayake &Guneratne, 2004; Chanan 1997; Nowel-Smith, 1997). Additionally, world cinema could be based in the United Kingdom, thus, stating that they are based on all foreign countries in countries that do not use English as their first language (Chanan 1997).
Furthermore, the term “world cinema” is followed by other terms with a similar or equivalent definition. For instance, national cinema and third cinema are those film productions based on foreign countries and the underdeveloped countries respectively. The United States has a different perspective towards the dominating Hollywood film production where they do not want any other country to establish a competing organisation that would put an effect towards the already established Hollywood company (Dissanayake & Guneratne, 2004). Therefore, the origin and development of world cinema, as well as the Hollywood production, has brought the advancement in technology where the current market and distribution has seen the sharing of culture and religion from country to country through the film as an art. The advantage of the term world cinema is based on the development of cultural development and the sharing of internal information where countries use media and films to air their views in political, social, economic, and technology aspects (Dissanayake & Guneratne, 2004). The general disadvantage is that world cinema is distributed in limited criteria where the Hollywood controls the overall market as they prevent competition from foreign film industries. Therefore, this paper focuses primarily on the definition and attributes of world cinema and the merits and demerits of the national cinema.
The World Cinema Definition
The term “world cinema” is an assumption based on the originality, production, and the language used in a film production. Similarly, the term world cinema is based on the notion where the film or movie production is an English-speaking or non-English-speaking artistic film production. As discussed by Chanan (1997), different countries have a different meaning as well as definition towards the term “world cinema”, thus making it hard to have a common definition. For instance, English-based films are foreign in non-English speaking movies. Spanish countries recognise American films as one of the world cinema films since they do not fall under their language and could not have a multiple viewing in the Spanish speaking countries (Dissanayake & Guneratne, 2004). Additionally, Indian movies have been in the market for a long time but could not be viewed or distributed in the English-speaking countries (Dissanayake & Guneratne, 2004). The latter could be termed as world cinema because of their use of Arabic language, hence, could not be prioritised in the universal cinemas. However, the term world cinema could not be based on the distribution size because of the use of foreign language since the distribution companies only focuses on the distributing the movies and films as per their geographical area.
US centric Position on World Cinema
The United States of America is well known for its massive production of movies and music in the context of Hollywood. The greatest movies and music of all time are based in the States as many people would say; hence taking the lead in defining the world cinema as non-Hollywood or else non-English-speaking cinemas (Chanan, 1997). Therefore, the Hollywood movies are recognised as the international movies because of the notion that English movies are well known for their universal airing as well as distributed internationally without the restriction based on languages used (Chanan, 1997). Similarly, the term “world cinema” in America is biased since the Hollywood production also known as English-based movies are aired all over the international and recognised cinemas. Therefore, the American culture is positioned on the top notch while other non-Hollywood produced movies are not recognised internationally. The U.S is superior and biased on the definition of the term world cinema while in America, movie production is known as Hollywood while in the rest of the world, and movie production is defined as non-Hollywood and is not accepted in most countries. For instance, one would not find a certain movie originating from Mexico since they are a Spanish-speaking country simply because the film is not aired or distributed by most production companies.
World Cinema Traditional Trajectories
Cinema and movie art originated and started its production in Asia where Japan was the leading country with most film production (Chanan, 1997). The early twenty-first century meant that Japan had almost 500 movie productions every year (Chanan, 1997). Afterwards, India joined the film production and surpassed the Japan country with most film production per unit is seen to the present day. India has dominated the film industry by providing the most viewed movies in the globe although most movies are locally distributed since they are based in the Arabic language (Chanan, 1997). Therefore, the Hollywood was born in the late twentieth century and thanks to the Lumiere Brother who introduced the modern form of cinema production (Chanan, 1997). The road to success of the world cinema and, more importantly the Hollywood production was gradual since the ancient forms of narratives were in the form of oral and undocumented then graduated to writings as well as printed narratives. Eventually, the narratives grew to become expressed-narratives that were acted inform of visual art where actors could dramatise the written narrative to form a film known as acting in the ancient period. Similarly, the Hollywood also known as the American
Film Industry came into existence as it developed technologically to dominate the film industry in the whole globe (Nagib, 2011). The Hollywood had the advantage of being aired and produced in English where most countries in the world were used English hence, offering a wider distribution advantage in the English-based countries worldwide. However, the Hollywood development started from the silent era that grew to the classical Hollywood cinema. The two periods experienced competition from the likes of Japan Film Production as well as Indian-based films that had dominated the movie industry (Nagib, 2011). The advancement of technology and the end of colonisation in the world meant that most countries were free and most were English speaking countries (Dissanayake &Guneratne, 2004). Therefore, there emerged the New Hollywood as well as the contemporary period Hollywood that consisted of advanced production that aired in most countries all over the globe. Therefore, the Hollywood production had absorbed the world cinema in the form of definition and explanation where other countries’ movie production based on foreign language is not internationally recognised as compared to the Hollywood production. Despite the success of the likes of Japan and Indian movie production companies, the Hollywood production still maintains the notion of the best and successful cinema production in the whole world.
Third Cinema
The term “world cinema” which is the non-Hollywood or non-English movie production is also meant to describe movies originating from the third-world countries. For instance, the developing countries and continents in the world are recognised as the third world since the technology and infrastructure are not yet in the level of the first world countries (Smith, 2012). Similarly, the development of movie production in the said countries, third world, is also lagging behind since their production units and production companies does not qualify to implement changes that could add up to come up with superior tastes of films and movies (Naficy, 2011). Therefore, the third cinema is the non-English or non-Hollywood film production.
Additionally, the term world cinema could be based on the third cinema as it provides production of movies reflecting the third political situation as well as other negative aspects. For instance, most movies from the third cinema or third world are a lesson aimed at portraying the real picture of the lives of people living in those countries (Chaudhuri, 2005). Aspects such as poverty, political appraisal, leadership upheavals, and climatic changes are always portrayed in such movies that are distributed to the rest of the world in an aim of providing lessons and knowledge of such things happening to the used countries (Chaudhuri, 2005). The first world movie productions are always connected to the production, distribution and airing of the third cinema movies in the world. Therefore, most critics of third cinema are based on the definition of world cinema as it is considered as a similar genre that is not based on the Hollywood or English movie production where the first world countries dominate the production and distribution as well as the revenues generated from the successful movie production.
Third Cinema Structure
Third cinema as seen in the developing countries, as well as the third world, articulates the importance of culture development in the context of portraying the roles played by colonialism, scramble for power, slavery, and other negative attributes. Therefore, the third cinema aims at promoting the awareness of every audience around the globe by providing teachings of every vice seen in the developing countries (Naficy, 2011). For instance, the definition of the term world cinema based on the third world could have several advantages that attribute specific policies aimed at broadcasting the filmed ideas to the rest of the world. The third world films and movies help in bringing liberation to the oppressed third world countries based on gender, race, religion, or ethnicity.
The effect of airing such movies to the public and the first world could help in bringing changes that would have a positive effect on the selected third world country. Similarly, similar third cinemas could help the world see the effect of some disasters seen in some countries such as ethnic war that could be followed by immigration or exile (Chaudhuri, 2005). Therefore, the human right protectionists could intervene and provide the required help. For example, the war and immigration effect were seen in Iraq and Iran after the outbreak of a war that saw the Muslim activists begging for their rights (Chaudhuri, 2005). The third cinema contemplating on some political and social vices seen in some countries could help identifying various causes of the problems, and the concerned groups could learn to identify and prevent similar cases from happening. However, the major disadvantage of third cinemas is towards the country based on the storyline seen in the film. The effect of airing their political or social problems could undermine their power by expressing negative picture to the rest of the world. Therefore, the exposure of the third cinema in the overall world could be helpful in changing the perspective of people towards some countries while others could ruin such opportunity by portraying a negative picture of the ongoing events in the third world or developing countries.
National Cinema
The world cinema is comprised of many national cinemas in the world that are based on their nationality as well as their place of origin. National cinema is a term used to describe a movie based on a specific country that is not aimed at distribution beyond their borders (Naficy, 2011). Similarly, the national cinema is a part of world cinema simply because the production of the said film could be based on their national language apart from the use of English. Furthermore, Naficy, (2011) suggests that Hollywood cinema could be a part of national cinema since it is based on the production and distribution in the American state. British cinema could as well be part or is a part of national cinema in the context of being locally produced in the United Kingdom culture. Therefore, national cinema is the definition of a country based film production and distribution whether portraying their culture, political or development but is considered local production considering the geographical area of the country.
National cinema could be identified and based on the concept of production, distribution as well as the economic value gained from the film production. For instance, a movie could have massive distribution revenues from their local audience as well as the international audience thus making it a national concern towards the country (Chaudhuri, 2005). Similarly, national cinema could be organised and analysed as a group towards the effects of the film production in the context of national cinema (Chaudhuri, 2005). Many portions of country-based national cinemas could be used to articulate the concept of world cinema where both the local and international audience would not recognise the national cinema as a Hollywood or British film production. Therefore, national cinema is a model used to describe the term world cinema in a country-wise definition.
Reconceptualising National Cinema
Crofts (1993) discussed the issues concerning the production, development, and distribution of the so-called national cinema in the context of countrywide production. For instance, the author had considered the aspect of circulating the films in social range as a way of defining the effect of national cinema in the overall world cinema (Crofts, 1993). Similarly, the author articulates the notion of the basic definition of the term national cinema as a negative attribute towards the Hollywood film production. According to Crofts (1993) several varieties of national cinema could discuss the importance of term attributing the desired knowledge stating that Hollywood had dominated the entire universal film market over the last century.
The first variety of national cinema that indicates the contradiction definition against Hollywood incorporates the standards set by the Hollywood production stating that the national cinemas should not be based to compete with the Hollywood neither should they add a distinctive target on the market niche dominated by the Hollywood industry (Crofts, 1993). Similarly, the second variety of national cinemas has a similar attribute of competing with the Hollywood though indirectly but still confronts and criticises the Hollywood production. Another third variety of the national cinema is that from the third world countries or else the developing countries that struggle towards reaching the level of the Hollywood production regardless of the challenges facing the challenge of not achieving their targeted competition (Crofts, 1993). Then there are those national cinemas that work on their strategies as they try to ignore the existence of the so-called Hollywood production companies.
The fifth variety of national cinemas as discussed by Stephen Crofts is those film production companies that try to compete with the Hollywood film production known as Anglophone (Crofts, 1993). Another variety of national cinemas works with the government in their film production as the state controls their movements as well as funding their film industry. Lastly, the other variety constitutes of those national cinemas that only works against their states as a way of creating a distance from their nationality. Therefore, Crofts (1993) had managed to attribute the definition of all the varieties of national cinemas based on the notion of world cinema that has a negative perspective towards the Hollywood film production companies.
Film as an Art of Multinational TV series
The art of film has been accepted by the multinational TV broadcasting because the two terms could not be separated. Both TV airing and film production go hand in hand because of the marketing and distribution theory where the current technology has broadened removing the barrier of physical distribution that included the selling of DVDs and other hard copies of the movies (Nagib, 2011). However, the multinational incorporation of the national cinema, as well as the world cinema, could only prevail through the inclusion of transnational system where some national cinema films could utilise the presence of other international attributes of producing films as well as the use of international language in those movies. The idea would broaden the audience, and such movies could be accepted in different countries including the Hollywood production countries (Nagib, 2011). Therefore, the introduction of transnational production techniques would have positive impacts towards the distribution of world cinema in various countries breaking the barriers of language and production challenges faced by non-Hollywood production companies (Nagib, 2011). Similarly, the transnational production of films as art could have the control of digital media, thus increasing their profit maximisation as well as exposing their cultural activities to a broader audience.
Considering the Spectator
The role of movie production is to attain maximum viewing and maximum distribution. However, a film production company could not attain such an achievement if it is based on national cinema though the notion could be broken by utilising the presence of transnational attributes and other facilities such as reconceptualising, trans-culturalism, translation, and interconnecting different cultures from different countries (Andrew, 2004). According to Andrew, (2004), the main perspectives of national viewers should be based on political, linguistic, demographical, and orientation in the movement beyond the boundaries as a way of ensuring a complete distribution of the proposed film. The role of transnational is to increase the diversity and distribution of a film project from a national cinema level towards a bigger and broad spectator thus; ensuring that the movie production and the world cinema is removed from the cocoon of being defined as non-Hollywood film production (Andrew, 2004).
The importance of considering the overall spectator and audience of the film production should be focused on the need for expanding the market niche of the movie production. Similarly, reconceptualization should be based on promoting the transnationalism in bridging the gap that is based on the definition of the term world cinema (Gazetas, 2008). World cinema, national cinema, and third cinema are parts of the film production companies that do not get enough viewing, airing, and distribution as per required by the overall population (Gazetas, 2008). Therefore, the new definition and the incorporation of transnationalism should help the current film production get enough audience from home-based audiences as well as international spectators. All the movie production companies should focus on the measures that would implement transnational ideas thus increasing the chances of having a broader audience and airing in foreign countries.
International Distribution of World Cinema Films
The notion of cultural transnationalism in the film industry is based on who should ascertain an international recognition of a world cinema based film. However, many would not accept a foreign culture or a foreign language film that would be hard to comprehend or else to follow (Higson, 2002). For instance, an American based audience would find it difficult to follow an Arabic film with a 100% Arabic content ranging from production, culture, and language (Higson, 2002). Similarly, a Japanese-speaking audience would not comprehend with an American film when English is a third language. Therefore, cultural and language barriers are said to be the determinants of international distribution basing a movie or a film from the production, culture, and the language used.
The Hollywood film production is the leading determinant of international distributors as they relate their production as a first world as well as the use of English language that is internationally recognised (Andrew, 2004). Having the role of deciding which film to air internationally has made the Hollywood film production industry have a superiority complex in the entire universe. Similarly, the Hollywood controlling the distribution and airing of national cinemas has helped improve the transnational criterion in defining the current foreign or non-Hollywood films.
Otherness in Third World Cinema
The concept of otherness or uniqueness found in the context of world cinema in almost every corner of the world taking the example of Latin American, African, Indian and Iranian cultures. The above foreign countries have one thing in common in the concept of world cinema. All are third world countries experiencing the development stage thus offering the definition of being in the national cinema or the third cinema as well as the world cinema (Higson, 2002). Therefore, otherness would be based on the evolution stage where the world cinema is still at a younger age of evolving from the concept of national cinema to the acceptance of transnational era that is widely accepted through the exchange of both cultural and reconceptualization stage (Andrew, 2004).
The scope of otherness could be advantageous towards the development of the term world cinema where the future generation would find it suitable to define the term as a film production that is widely accepted all over the globe be it from India, Africa, Latin or America. Similarly, the transnational concept that is going to take effect in the proposed era thus the need to improve the relationship between the pioneers and the Hollywood film production should be based on the need to improve the film industry instead of competing (Gazetas, 2008). Additionally, the use of one language in airing the films should bring positive feedback because the film could be widely accepted all over the world increasing the chances of increasing the audience as well as profit increment (Gazetas, 2008). Furthermore, interrelation regarding production and borrowing foreign or Hollywood or English-speaking film production could as well increase the chances of having a larger audience comparing to the latter form of using the foreign language and foreign production.
Avoiding Old Dichotomy
The ancient concept of analysing or discussing the world cinema was based on having a negative attribute that aimed at proposing Hollywood as the only favourite film production company. However, the book The History of World Cinema by Smith has tried to promote the peoples’ perspective towards a better definition (Nowel-Smith, 1997). Therefore, the author has articulated different definitions to remove the old negative saying claiming that world cinema could be improved to include every country willing to distribute their artistic as a way of sharing culture, social, and political changes (Nowel-Smith, 1997). Similarly, the book would incorporate the role of the Hollywood in welcoming the national cinema in the market by removing the barriers that protect other countries to compete with the dominating Hollywood production in the globe. The advantage of the view of the author is that the global film production could develop if merged by working together instead of competing but the Hollywood should not restrict other national cinema production industries to have their labels.
Conclusion
The concept of understanding the definition of the term world cinema is based on the origin and the geographical area of the interested individual. For instance, the article has tried to ascertain several definitions of the term where several writers do not have a stable or concrete definition of the term as most definitions use a negative aspect to specify a definition. World cinema has been linked with the diverse definitions where some claim that it is non-English speaking film productions as well as the non-Hollywood film productions. These kinds of definitions do not have a positive attribute that would encourage the use of similar terms such as national cinema or third cinema. However, other authors have discussed the improvements in the term world cinema where new terms such as transnational that includes the incorporation of several aspects that would be used to introduce international language as well as production sharing hence seeing the acceptance of national cinema in other foreign countries. Therefore, the national, world and third cinema has changed due to the development of technology and sharing of production expertise thus increasing the spectator radius by being accepted globally.
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