Film Distribution in the Digital Age ― Pirates and Professionals

Film Distribution in the Digital Age critically examines the evolution of the landscape of film distribution in recent years. In doing so, it argues that the interlocking ecosystem(s) of media dissemination must be considered holistically and culturally if we are to truly understand the transnational flows of cultural texts. Through a series of case studies and examples, the book presents the argument that rather than just representing the movement of an economic commodity, the act of film distribution also mediates and facilitates the social and professional relationships of film distributors. The fact that these distributors exist across a number of arenas (online/offline, official/unofficial) does not necessarily mean that their aims and motivations are necessarily distinct and oppositional. Indeed, this book argues that their actions come together to form a complex ecosystem of distribution that should be considered through the metaphor of symbiosis rather than parasitism.

Virginia Crisp is Senior Lecturer in Media and Communications at Coventry University, UK and co-editor (with Dr Gabriel Menotti Gonring) of Besides the Screen: Moving Images through Distribution, Promotion and Curation (2015). She is also the principle investigator on the AHRC funded International Network Grant, 'Besides the Screen'.