Monopolising Movie Magic
The cash is always greener on the other side, a side where tradition and templates trump experimentative risks. The film scene has always been on the extremes: you’re either blockbuster-making royalty or paupers with creative agency. But where is the bridge that blurs this black-and-white perspective on commercialism and expression? Why is avant-garde media so allusive and are big-budget productions undermining the average film audience?
When it comes to cinema, the process of evolution and natural selection is inhibited by capitalism.
Before the prominence of OTT platforms or previously, DVDs, the culture of going to a cinema was an ordeal, an experience. From entering into a mystical set up of a cinema, buying your popcorn and snacks at the counter, and walking through darkened alleys, filled with anticipation, to watch a movie star, the epitome of glitz and glamour on the big screen. Each story, transcends you to another world, letting you escape the mundanity of life. This experience, pioneered by Hollywood, was undoubtedly a booming industry enabling a parasocial nature in how the general audience interacted with film. Tropes and characters that leveraged reality to create an idealistic fantasy. A commercial-consumerist haven.
However, an effect like this can only last for a short time. When the cat’s out of the bag, the magic trick loses its charm. However, due to a capitalistic hierarchy in the mainstream film industry, we see a lack of willingness to evolve with the community and upcoming creatives.
Franchises and corporations like Disney and Marvel started as pioneering tour de forces in animation and superhero film, in that order, that carried an intention and humanism to their creative power until they were replicated and watered down, piggybacking off of the initial concept. Even bringing in indie artists (Nomadland’s Chloe Zhao directing Marvel’s Eternals or Greta Gerwig directing Barbie) to spice up the preset is bound to be contrived.
Film as a business is so fickle since there isn’t a foolproof method that will produce a blockbuster. The human condition is constantly evolving and the film is just a mystical mirror to our lives, experiences, and thought processes. Enabling an organic ebb and flow by producing creative work with and taking risks with newer voices rather than recycling talent can prove beneficial in the long run.
So, is there a light at the end of this tunnel? Here are some inspiring artists and work that have managed to break boundaries and create a niche audience for themselves:
Samsara (2024): Lois Patiño uses numerous devices of experimental cinema to create a visual tapestry of life, death, and the afterlife. His multi-sensory style of filmmaking doesn’t succumb to any template, creating a distinctive approach to its subject matter.
Devi (1960) by Satyajit Ray: A commentary on dogmatism in India by using an absurd tale that seems eerily close to reality.
Gregg Araki: His contribution to absurd cinema opened up a pioneering pathway for the portrayal of unabashed queerness.
Super Deluxe (2019): Thiagarajan Kumararaja constructs overlapping narratives with absurdity, comedy, and fantasy to tackle issues of religion, sex, and societal norms within a South Indian backdrop.
Additionally, the age of social media has made stories, information, and creatives accessible while slowly stripping away the allure and exclusivity of celebrity culture.
Film has always been the art of expression, and documentation for and by the community, and it always will be, we as a society just need to reclaim it as our own for it to keep flourishing as an art form and medium of storytelling without falling for cash-grab gimmicks.
References:
Asibong, Andrew (2009) Unrecognizable bonds: bleeding kinship in Pedro Almodóvar and Gregg Araki. New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film 7 (3), pp. 185-196. ISSN 1474-2756.
James M. Moran, “Gregg Araki: Guerilla Film-Maker for a Queer Generation,” Film Quarterly, 50 no. 1 (Autumn 1996), 19.
Dayani (2024) The Commercialization of Cinema. Imperium
Written by Sabrina Joseph
Animations by Anjali Swarstad
