Answer To: 8 pages (4000 words): 12 font Time new Roman 1.5 space. Plus appendices’ Due date 27/01/2020 ...
Sunabh answered on Jan 28 2021
Last Name: 13
Name:
Professor:
Course:
Date:
Title: Nationalism, Globalization and Art Industry
Contents
Introduction 3
Privatization of South African culture and film industries (Art) 3
Film industries expectation of market growth. 5
South African Cultural market – A focus on film Market System. 6
The Tension in the Market of mainly Film (and some of art industries). 8
Film industry’s global Successful or Unsuccessful Influences 10
Conclusion 11
Works Cited 13
Introduction
Cinema and film industry of any nation can be considered as the representation of various aspects. It would be customary to consider that national cinema is highly dynamic and adaptable to change, reflecting the change within nation would be their prior responsibility. South African film industry received international acclamation in 1980 for the very popular and well-known movie ‘The Gods Must Be Crazy’. Claims have been made against the transition of South African film industry and the way; it has failed to introduce new concepts in cinema. Talent, ideas and capital are the essential variable whose transitional movement influences national cinemas and South African film industry is no exception. Transitional production along with coproduction, globalization and lack of new concepts to deliver has shaped the South African cinema and film industry. This paper focuses upon the dynamics of South African film industry and the impact of different transitions as well as approaches. Further, this paper will also focus upon the effect of globalization on South African cinema and the impact it may have created at national level. Moreover, the article will include the growth of film industry with the inclusion of certain transitions and prevalent tensions in the industry.
Privatization of South African culture and film industries (Art)
Globalization and privatization can be considered as two simpler terms when it comes to trade and they have been used proficiently in studies as well as business world. However, when the relations are connected to both of the prior mentioned variables; it becomes a matter of debate among scholars even at the international discipline. Abdulsattar suggested that both the terms have equivalent role as well as positioning in the contemporary world and it would be essential to consider that they may have played a significant role in the creation of nation states and modern societies. Likewise, they also suggested that it would not be wrong to mention that nationalism have been facing difficulty surviving this world. While, some also suggest that nationalism may have benefitted from globalization, yet the latter fact lacks evidences.
Globalization is being appreciated all across the world because it has allows breaking of barriers towards trade, communication as well as cultural exchange such as the cinema and film industry. However, one of the most neglected aspects with respect to increasing globalization is the dominance that western countries may be having over other countries. This is majorly because technology as well as science developed in western countries and the innovation to the same is prevalent in those countries. Thus, their values and ideas proactively emerged as the standards around the world. Therefore, it would not be wrong to imply that ideas and products developed in and by rich countries have a significant impact upon the ideas and values of poor countries.
The South African (SA) film industry is the living example as well as evidence for the above-mentioned justification. SA employees more than 25,000 individuals and it has been suggested that more content is being consumed in the country itself than anywhere else is in the African continent. SA is also considered as a leader in production of films and satellite distribution of interactive content. However, as mentioned by Jooste, SA film industry has been proven beneficial for the foreign filmmakers rather than the local industry. SA has provided some of the major contributing factors that have been religiously manipulated and favored foreign producers and these include the diverse and unique locations as well as lower production cost compared to Europe and United States (US).
It would be essential to consider that globalization has affected SA cinemas as well as film industry in a negative manner. The industry that was once well known as well as praised for content, ideas as well as culture depicted in their creation, is now disguised and defamed. There are a number of factors reported behind this transition however; globalization and lack of support to the local creators are major (Mmbengwa et al.). In fact, the SA government itself represents a major irony with their support and thoughts. Narsiah suggested and argued upon the fact that this may be because government identifies local film industry as an area of potential growth and a major catalyst for indirect as well as direct employment. However, SA film industry has failed to create and produce its own content and profit generation from the same and lack of support to the local or national creators is the major factor behind the same.
Visser suggested that a globalizing world might be a developing world however; with time, every place may begin to appear same. During this time, cultural activities and products are the major factors that can preserve the nation from identity crises and may place the nation at competitive edge. This is where the SA film industry is supposed to be lagging because they may be failing to reflect or depict their own tradition or culture in order to pursue globalization. Considering the personal experience of being a producer at one of the well-owned SA studios, reality shook the personal expectations.
It revealed that the local industry does not receive funding as well as enough support from the government as well as other agencies, because of which SA’s own content has declined within last decade (Kowalik and Philippe). Further, this reality has also presented that the mindset of viewers have changed and they fail to realize and support national producers even if they may be coming with unique content, rather, they may support the same content or visualizing if it would be an international creation. This is why international content or foreign movies are re-created and shown to the viewers because they accept them.
Film industries expectation of market growth.
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF) reported that the SA film industry could have a direct impact of around R4.4billion upon the economic production especially in 2017. This could lead to a significant increase in the production as well as economy in the near term to approximately R12.2-billion. This should have also increased the employment by up to 4.9 for every R1 invested however, despite being an exciting as well a busy production location for foreign countries, the national level production or the creation of SA’s own content has suffered a lot. There may have been some of the movies or films, which may have received returns or success however, considering a major portion of the production, commercial business or profit has been observed to be non-existent.
Jooste specifically emphasized upon the fact that SA has around 800 movie screens in not more than 80 complexes, which compared to U.S with 40,000 movie screens at 6,000 sites would be considered as non-existent and this is where globalization has betrayed SA film industry. This clearly reflects the sites where real money will be made and the potential of money making as well. This also led to the analysis that SA film industry may be failing to fulfill the expectations of viewers and in order to create their own sustainable ecosystem they will be required to create content that may have a global acceptance. Kowalik and Philippe suggested that SA government in 1994 established the Ministry of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and since then, there have been several political discourses with respect to the film policy.
The film industry at that time was considered as major or key sector in cultural industries and the idea behind that was the promotion of national identity, which would be essential for political transformations and nation building. However, the policy makers did not consider the effect that globalization would have on the film industry and how it will shift its focus from the national issues to coproduction for foreign countries. Visser specifically mentioned and agreed upon the fact that it would be essential to consider that SA film...