Film making in Argentina: Trajectory, organization, geography,

and the creation of externalities

José Antonio Borello, Aida Quintar, Gustavo Seijo, and Adrián Pérez Llahi

UNGS/ CONICET, Argentina

jborello@ungs.edu.ar(paper presented at the AAG meeting in Washington, 2010)

Topics discussed in the presentation

• We are presenting preliminary results of an on-going research project on film making in Argentina.

• The presentation poses some questions and it looks at three dimensions of Argentinean film making:

• its historical development, • its past and current geography, • and its current organization and links to TV and the

production of commercials,

• In the conclusions we will make some reflections about the creation of agglomeration economies around film making, particularly in the city of Buenos Aires.

The larger project on film production and consumption

• Although the presentation is centered on the processes and agents connected to film production, the larger project of which this paper is part also analyses consumption and distribution and their interaction with production. The latter are seen as socially and politically constructed.

• One underlying intention of this paper is to contribute to a more precise description of the architecture of production systems in Argentina and other less-developed countries.

• The theory and concepts emerging from the experience of developed countries may be insufficient to understand the production systems of less-developed countries.

I. QUESTIONS

Data and information on film making

• Existing secondary data on film making in Argentina has a number of shortcomings that are a reflection of the “common sense” knowledge about the activity.

• Most of the existing analysis on the film making complex has been carried out by persons more interested in the aesthetics of film and in parts of its consumption but little on the organizational, social, economic or geographical aspects, with few exceptions.

• This is also common to other cultural economic activities, which have been analyzed from perspectives emanating from the human sciences and from art.

• In part, the lack of information and analysis from social and economic perspectives derives from what have been the interests of the observers of these activities.

Specificities of film making and methodological problems (1)

• Is the film project a valid unit of analysis?• What is a movie?

• Motion pictures are very different from time to time and from place to place.

• How to construct a valid historical periodization of film making? (organization of production, aesthetics, political considerations?)

Other methodological questions (2)

• Film making shares with other cultural activities a similar uncertainty about demand. It is a product that goes looking for a demand that is uncertain.

• In countries such as Argentina, can we speak of a film industry?

Most vibrant television and cinemas around the world based on IMDb

Key and sources:Over 10,000 titles (green), over 5,000 (yellow), over 1,000 (blue)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b3/Most_vibrant_cinemas.png

Argentina

Brazil

II. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT

Argentina, number of movies released per year, 1897-2009

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

1897

1900

1903

1906

1909

1912

1915

1918

1921

1924

1927

1930

1933

1936

1939

1942

1945

1948

1951

1954

1957

1960

1963

1966

1969

1972

1975

1978

1981

1984

1987

1990

1993

1996

1999

2002

2005

2008

Pioneers of the silent era,1897-1932 Golden and classic periods, 1933-57

The age of the studios

First "new Argentinean cinema", 1957-1976

Second "new Argentinean cinema", 1991-

Cinema under a military dictatorship, '76-83 and post-dictatorship, '83-'91

Source: Data for 1910-2009 compiled by Adrián Pérez Llahí; 1897-1909, wikipedia accessed on-line, February 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_Argentine_films .

III. GEOGRAPHY

Argentina, Film producers by province, (economic census 2004)

Number of film producers

Province

89 City of Buenos Aires10 Buenos Aires province

6 Córdoba6 Santa Fe5 Mendoza2 Catamarca2 La Pampa2 Río Negro2 San Luis2 Salta2 Tucumán6 Others

134 TOTAL

Number of film producers

Province

89 City of Buenos Aires10 Buenos Aires province

6 Córdoba6 Santa Fe5 Mendoza2 Catamarca2 La Pampa2 Río Negro2 San Luis2 Salta2 Tucumán6 Others

134 TOTAL

Buenos Aires Metropolitan Region

13 million people

1/3 of Argentina’s population

1/2 of nat’l manufacturing

City of Buenos Aires proper

25

City of Buenos Aires proper. Largest concentration of film producers (units)

27

13

9

8

5 DOWNTOWN

City of Buenos Aires, Film producers by district,

(economic census 2004)

Number of film producers

District number Neighborhoods included totally or partially in each district

27 1 Downtown (Retiro, Recoleta, San Nicolás, Balvanera)

25 9 Palermo, Colegiales, Villa Crespo

13 10 Belgrano, Núñez, Coghlan, Saavedra

9 14 Chacarita, Paternal, Villa Ortúzar and others

8 3 Montserrat, Constitución, San Telmo

5 2 Balvanera, Almagro

1 11 Flores, Pque. Avellaneda, Floresta

1 13 Pque. Avellaneda, Mataderos, Villa Luro, Villa Lugano

89 TOTAL

IV. ORGANIZATION

Film producers, integration, links to other activities

• There are few film producers that actually last from one movie to the next one. The reproduction of the activity into the future occurs at the level of technicians and tightly connected small groups that move from one movie project into the next.

• As in other economic activities, such as manufacturing, firms tend to be more integrated and to have a broader product mix than in DCs. This is because film making in Argentina does not seem to be a commercially successful activity but an excuse, an anchor for other activities.

• Recent data show that about half of the technicians working in film production also work (in any given year) in the production of advertising films. Yet the number of people working in advertising films is more than three times the number of people working in film production.

Number of technicians who worked in

adverting films and movies, 2008

Number of people who worked in both

advertising and movies; 568; 13%

Number of people who worked in

movies; 575; 13% Number of people who worked in

advertising films; 3193; 74%

FINAL REMARKS (1)

• Historical development and trajectory:– Erratic trajectory? – Discontinuous learning processes– Large state role

• Current geography:– Few large movie producers, many small enterprises

heavily concentrated in Buenos Aires

• Organization and links to other activities:– Important links to commercials, acting, TV,

international connections continue and are very relevant.

FINAL REMARKS (2)

• With few national restrictions to the distribution of foreign films and a small local market Argentinean films rarely make profits.

• Over 70% of the public goes to North American movies. Movie theaters have also become concentrated in transnational enterprises with important links to distributors.

• The public is caught in the aesthetics of Hollywood?

• Thank you!!

• jborello@ungs.edu.ar