South Asian cinema and video online distribution (VOD) research network

自1948年以来，南亚国家在英国统治下共享殖民历史，并因地区紧张局势而分离，几十年来，南亚国家都同样接触到印地语电影。在该地区，在印度制作的印地语电影既是一种共享的媒介，也是一种现代形式的文化殖民。视频在线分销（VOD）现在开始动摇这一电影产业格局，使南亚国家的电影能够在全球流通，直到最近，这些电影还仅限于国内市场。南亚国家之间的紧张关系标志着英国南亚侨民内部的关系和公众对南亚侨民的态度。然而，今天，视频点播使印度观众有可能观看巴基斯坦或孟加拉国的电影，即使两国之间的人员和货物流动以及散居国外者之间的关系充其量是困难的。但这种新形式的文化交流完全是由视频在线分销公司（VOD）及其商业利益介导的。该网络的目的是使南亚的电影制片人和学者能够开始探索这一新的电影领域所提供的区域对话的可能性。Netflix、亚马逊、Hotstar、Iceland或Viu等视频点播的增长有两个特点：地理覆盖范围的扩大和本地内容制作的多样化。视频点播采用委托当地工作人员制作当地语言的电影或连续剧作为市场渗透战略。VOD声称，这使得在国内产业中被边缘化的电影制片人能够获得国际曝光。一般的假设是，这反过来又有助于挑战有关当地文化和身份的公认观念。实际上，研究还处于早期阶段，无法证实这两种观点。大多数关于VOD的研究都是由公司或其投资者赞助的。全球北方的公共咨询机构进行了更客观的研究，但这些研究在应用于南亚国家电影院时几乎没有实际用途。现有的学术研究通过媒体的政治经济学方法将VOD作为一个工业综合体进行研究，其中电影，其美学和文化特性是边缘问题。这类研究记录了VOD在多大程度上定义了独立电影制片人的工作范围。缺少的是关于电影制作人如何在这些限制内移动以及这反过来如何塑造他们制作的电影的研究。这些条件界定了独立电影--其内容和美学--以及我们对地方身份的认同。通过汇集来自不同南亚国家的电影制片人和学者，并将理论方法与创意产业专业人士的经验相结合，这个网络将使研究能够探索VOD的运作方式（发行、委托和制作）正在塑造南亚身份和区域关系的观念。这将是第一个从方法论和地理角度研究VOD运作的网络。建立联系还将促进具有共同历史和文化影响但有冲突政治关系的国民之间的跨国对话。第三，网络将使我们能够从不同的专业窗口解决内容，美学和表现的问题，实施跨学科的比较方法，基于本地化的角度，将与VOD对独立电影的影响的研究相关。

Sharing a colonial past under British rule and separated by regional tensions since 1948, South Asian nations have all been equally exposed to Hindi cinema for decades. Within the region, Hindi cinema made in India has been simultaneously a shared medium and a modern form of cultural colonisation. Video online distribution (VOD) is now beginning to destabilise this film industrial configuration, enabling the global circulation of films from South Asian countries that, until recently, were confined to the domestic market. Tension between South Asian countries mark both relations within the South Asian diaspora in Britain and public attitudes towards South Asian diasporans. Today, however, VOD makes it possible for Indian audiences to watch, for instance, Pakistani or Bangladeshi films, even if movement of people and goods between the two countries, and inter-diasporan relations, are at best difficult. But this new form of cultural exchange is entirely mediated by video online distribution companies (VODs) and their commercial interests. The purpose of this network is to enable filmmakers and scholars from South Asia to begin to explore the possibilities of regional dialogue offered by this is new cinematic ground.Two features characterise the growth of VODs like Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Iflix or Viu: the expansion of their geographic reach and their diversification into local content production. VODs have adopted the commissioning and production of films or series in local languages with local crews as a market penetration strategy. VODs' claim is that this enables filmmakers marginalised within the domestic industry to gain international exposure. The general assumption is that this, in turn, helps challenge received ideas about local cultures and identities. In reality research is at too early a stage to substantiate either.Most research on VOD is sponsored by the companies or their investors. More objective studies have been undertaken by public advisory agencies in the Global North, which are, however, of little practical use when applied to national cinemas in South Asia. Existing academic research examines VOD as an industrial complex through a political economy of the media approach within which films, their aesthetics and cultural specificity are marginal concerns. This type of research documents the extent to which VODs define the limits within which independent filmmakers work. What is missing is research on how filmmakers move within those limits and how this, in turn, shapes the films they make. These conditions demarcate independent cinema - its content and aesthetics - and, with it, also our imaginings of local identities.By bringing together filmmakers from different South Asian countries and scholars, and combining theoretical approaches with the experience of creative industry professionals, this network will enable research that explores how VODs' operation (distribution, commissioning and production) is shaping ideas of South Asian identity and regional relations. It will be the first network to research VODs' operation from this methodological and geographic perspective. Networking will also stimulate transnational dialogue among nationals who share common historical and cultural influences but have entertained conflictual political relations. Third, networking will enable us to address questions of content, aesthetics and representation from different professional windows, implementing an interdisciplinary, comparative methodology that, based on localised angles, will be of relevance to the study of VOD's impact on independent cinema also in other regions.