[San Juan, Puerto Rico – 22 April 2021]
The COVID-19 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact in all sectors, including the creative industries. In 2020, the global public health restrictions have affected the production of many films, and it has also disrupted the way that most film festivals had to celebrate their latest editions worldwide. The cancellation of the famous Cannes Film Festival in 2020 was a major blow to the international film business, just as the closure of many cinemas during the pandemic is causing profound changes in film distribution and exhibition models in all latitudes.
This is the case for African cinemas too, as the pandemic has halted many movies in production and other film projects throughout the continent. However, while many traditional aspects of filmmaking are changing today, the COVID-19 crisis has also accelerated many digital opportunities in this growing creative sector. This is opening up new spaces for online collaboration and exhibition of African content beyond the traditional circuits.
These and other ideas were discussed at the professional exchange forum “El Árbol de las Palabras” (The Palaver Tree) of the 17th edition of the Tarifa-Tangier African Film Festival (FCAT), the largest annual competitive film event dedicated to the cinemas of Africa and its diasporas in the Spanish-speaking world.
In one of the online seminars promoted by the FCAT in December 2020, three experts from different African countries analyzed the changes and transformations caused by the first months of the pandemic in their respective filmmaking activities. This video-summary presents some of the main ideas of this hour-and-a-half-long conversation.
With no doubt, these reflections speak about the fact that we are currently in a period of transformation, in a moment of constant changes which will continue modifying our way of producing and consuming movies from now on. At the same time, these observations also remind us that the pandemic is drawing new horizons which, perhaps, will also bring us to a “new normality” in the world of global cinemas.
From the celebration of hybrid festivals, the normalization of digital premieres, the growth of productions based on connections beyond physical borders and with multiple passports… These times manifest that, from our multiple interconnected screens, the evolution of globalization remains visible through the lens of media content, which is perhaps forever changing the order and positioning of global cultural products.
With so many new (inter)connections, is the marginality of African cinemas also changing? How will the circulation of these traditional “peripheral cinemas” (as Spanish scholar Alberto Elena classified them in the late 90’s) evolve from now on? Have the digital revolution, together with this pandemic, disrupted the traditional centers of the film business too? Are we entering a post-periphery screen media ecosystem? …
Time will confirm these changes, so I will continue to keep an eye on this film story.