Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Fan Enterprise as an Alternative Economy
- 2 Researching an Alternative Economy
- 3 Defining European Cult Cinema
- 4 Historicizing the Alternative Economy of European Cult Cinema Fan Enterprise
- 5 Sharing European Cult Cinema: Encouraging and Rewarding Fan Enterprise
- 6 Informal Enterprises: Selling European Cult Cinema
- Conclusion: Making Fandoms
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Sharing European Cult Cinema: Encouraging and Rewarding Fan Enterprise
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Acknowledgements
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Introduction
- 1 Fan Enterprise as an Alternative Economy
- 2 Researching an Alternative Economy
- 3 Defining European Cult Cinema
- 4 Historicizing the Alternative Economy of European Cult Cinema Fan Enterprise
- 5 Sharing European Cult Cinema: Encouraging and Rewarding Fan Enterprise
- 6 Informal Enterprises: Selling European Cult Cinema
- Conclusion: Making Fandoms
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract
This chapter looks at how European cult cinema is shared, reappropriated and recirculated on an invite only file-sharing community that I refer to as CineTorrent. Drawing on a virtual ethnography of this community, engagement with its members and my own experiences of using the site as autoethnography, I consider how rules and regulations instigated by the moderators of the site both encourage and reward member creativity. I argue that this has led to the generation of a comprehensive archive of cult film in which Italian cult cinema plays a significant role, but also the emergence of a specific group of members who are devoted to making commercially unreleased European cult cinema accessible to English speaking audiences through a variety of do-it-yourself means.
Keywords: file-sharing, technology, torrents, archives, cult film distribution
At the close of the previous chapter, I highlighted how the increasing adoption of the World Wide Web both disrupted fan enterprise, but, at the same time, presented new opportunities for enterprise. The final two chapters of this book focus on European cult cinema fan enterprise taking place online. This chapter considers how fans have responded to declining commercial home video releases of gialli, by taking it upon themselves to archive, reappropriate, and distribute films via an invite only file-sharing community that I refer to as CineTorrent. Drawing on a virtual ethnography of this community, engagement with its members, and my own experiences, I consider how rules and regulations instigated by the moderators of the site both encourage and reward fan enterprise. I argue that this has led to the generation of a comprehensive archive of cult film, in which Italian cult cinema plays a significant role, but also the emergence of a specific group of members who make commercially unreleased gialli accessible to English-speaking audiences through a variety of DIY means. Their work demonstrates a high level of investment in both time and equipment, in some instances mirroring professional media practice. However, unlike those gainfully employed as media professionals, members of CineTorrent receive no obvious financial reward for their production, and display no clear intention to make money out of this fan pursuit; instead, their products are exchanged as gifts amongst the community.I discuss how CineTorrent operates as if it were a factory of fan production, where fans release Italian cult films on DVD by making them available for distribution on CineTorrent.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Making European Cult CinemaFan Enterprise in an Alternative Economy, pp. 139 - 166Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2018