Abstract
In this essay, I shall explore how the internet plays a key role at almost every stage of the life of a contemporary film, in particular examining how and why amateur and independent filmmakers use film festival submission websites in order to find audiences for their films. My argument will be that amateur and independent filmmakers are encouraged to buy into the naturalised logic of wanting to become increasingly visible, or cinematic, and that they thus pay various sums of money to give their work a chance of garnering attention, for example at film festivals. Nonetheless, I shall examine how this competition in some senses always already favours existing professionals. In other words, while amateur and independent filmmakers pursue recognition at film festivals, typically in pursuit of becoming a professional, the essay will critique the exploitative nature of film festival submission websites, and what we might call the professionalisation of amateur filmmaking. That is, amateur filmmakers are encouraged to pay ever-greater sums of money in order to find audiences for their work, thereby contributing to the creation of what Maurizio Lazzarato has termed the ‘indebted man’ (Lazzarato 2012).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Contemporary Cinema and Neoliberal Ideology |
| Editors | Ewa Mazierska, Lars Kristensen |
| Place of Publication | London |
| Publisher | Routledge: Taylor & Francis Group |
| Pages | 57 |
| Number of pages | 72 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781138235748 |
| Publication status | Published - 2017 |