The Precarious in the Cinemas of the Americas by Constanza Burucúa & Carolina Sitnisky

The Precarious in the Cinemas of the Americas by Constanza Burucúa & Carolina Sitnisky

Author:Constanza Burucúa & Carolina Sitnisky
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer International Publishing, Cham


Legislation and the Multicultural Paradigm

The 2003 law was the culmination of a process that had started in 1997 with the Ley de Cultura (Culture Law), which created the Ministry of Culture and within it a Film Division. 11 It was issued in the midst of political turmoil, and in response to the struggles of the time. It sought above all to promote culture as a way of bolstering national identity , integrating national culture with that of the rest of the world, and defining Colombia as a diverse and multicultural nation. This definition would be particularly consequential for future filmmaking. It followed a path opened by the 1991 Constitution, which stressed equality and mandated measures to favor marginalized ethnic communities. It responded both to the demands of globalization—at a time when multiculturalism was promoted and debated worldwide—and a need to heal the fractures produced by internal war. 12

After the Culture Law of 1997 was passed, work began on the creation of what would become the 2003 Film Law, which provided the legal basis for a highly effective effort by the state to boost the production of films in Colombia . 13 The number of movies made in the country increased significantly. While the nineties saw an average of three Colombian films released per year, between 2004 and 2006 that average was eight, and in the next three years it was twelve. In 2012 the number of releases had jumped to twenty-three, and by 2016 it soared to forty-one. 14 This upsurge was largely the result of a growing availability of funding, made possible by the 2003 law. Particularly important was the creation of the Film Promotion Fund, financed through a ten percent tax on all Colombian box-office receipts, which provided state grants for filmmaking. In addition, the law stipulated generous tax incentives for private funding of films, provided state assistance to filmmakers looking for foreign co-financing, and created mechanisms to facilitate the distribution of their films on the international film festival circuit .

With its goal of promoting diversity, the 2003 law also decentralized and diversified the gaze of Colombian cinema. Óscar Ruíz Navia, William Vega , and César Acevedo were among those who participated in this diversification. Other filmmakers who have looked at marginalized ethnic communities in fiction films include Ciro Guerra , with Los viajes del viento / The Wind Journeys (2009) and El abrazo de la serpiente / The Embrace of the Serpent (2015) ; Jhonny Hendrix Hinestroza , with Chocó (2012); Juan Andrés Arango , with La Playa DC (2012) and X500 (2017); and Santiago Lozano and Ángela Osorio , with Siembra (2015). All of these films promote the multicultural vision of the 1997 Culture Law by featuring indigenous and Afro-Colombian characters.

These filmmakers explore how local inhabitants understand their own situation, often by incorporating nonprofessional actors who participate in the conception and planning of the films, as Ruíz Navia, Vega , and Acevedo have done in their productions. Most of the directors do not come from the



Download



Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.