Transformation Processes in Post-Socialist Screen Media

TRANSFORMATION PROCESSES IN POST-SOCIALIST SCREEN MEDIA Edited by JANA DUDKOVÁ AND KATARÍNA MIŠÍKOVÁ Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava Film and Television Faculty Institute of Theatre and Film Research Slovak Academy of Sciences ÚDFV Ústav divadelnej a ﬁlmovej vedy SAV 2016 Reviewers: TABLE OF CONTENTS Prof. Ewa Mazierska Mgr. Jan Hanzlík, PhD. Introduction Jana Dudková and Katarína Mišíková . 5 Slovak Audiovisual Fund – A Brief History of Prolonged Time Martin Šmatlák . 11 Successful Transformation: What Protected Polish Cinema from Extinction after 1989? Elżbieta Durys . 21 One Myth, Two Paths: The Slovak Television Film after 1989 Seen Through the Narrative on Contemporary Slovak Cinema Jana Dudková . 37 The Real Story: Indexing Strategies of Slovak Social Film Dramas Katarína Mišíková . 60 Hungarian and Romanian Film Production in Transnational Frameworks: Small Domestic Taste This publication was financially supported by the Slovak Audiovisual Fund Andrea Virginás . 77 The Missing Middle Transformations and Trends in Hungarian Film Comedies after Political Change This publication was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Balázs Varga . 97 Agency under the contract No. APVV-0797-12 On-Demand Spectatorship: Eight Concepts for the Era of Digital Delivery Chuck Tryon . 117 Transformation Processes in Post-Socialist Screen Media Festivals Gone Digital – A Case-Study of Netcinema. © Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, 2016 bg and the Online European Film Festival in Bulgaria © Institute of Theatre and Film Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 2016 Maya Nedyalkova . 138 Edited by Jana Dudková and Katarína Mišíková (Hi)stories of Socialist Yugoslavia Photo credits for the front page © MPhilms Nevena Daković . 153 Cover & Typo Michal Mojžiš Łódź as a Central European Post-Cinematic City, and the Tourist Gaze Ewa Ciszewska . 167 ISBN 978-80-8195-008-7 Notes on Contributors . 188 INTRODUCTION Jana Dudková and Katarína Mišíková After the fall of the iron curtain, most of the post-socialist screen industries of Eastern Europe needed to come to terms with new cultural developments and geopolitical reorganization, leading to prolonged searches for new approaches to privatisation, funding, and legal support (and not just simply reorganizing along western lines). This volume was inspired by the need better to interrogate such processes and concepts of transformation at the level of screen aesthetics and their industrial contexts. It focuses primarily on the relationships between systemic institutional, legislative, and technological developments within the individual post-socialist countries of Central and South-East Europe, on the one hand, and, on the other, the regimes of content, distribution, and values specific to their national industries. The idea of bringing such case-studies together stems from our own research on the post-1989 development of Slovak cinema;1 research which led us to recognize a need to compare the development of this nation’s screen industries to those of others in the aforementioned regions that also underwent comparable socio-political changes. It is widely accepted by film professionals and scholars that Slovak cinema experienced a lengthy period of crisis in the 1990s, as it found itself on the brink of extinction after having lost much of its funding and institutional support, audiences, and even its technological infrastructure. Yet, while domestic understandings remain shrouded in myths of a non-existent sector, Slovak cinema actually re-emerged in the new millennium as a stable media hub. The restabilisation of the industry coincided with Slovakia’s entry into the European Union in 2004 and with its response to global technological developments, among which digitisation was the most significant. It was therefore particularly important that we consider the still powerful representations of the Slovak screen industries in relation to the transformative experiences of other post-socialist industries. In this respect, it may be salient for Slovak media professionals to revise 1 In the last few years, this research was conducted mainly under the project Slovak Cinema after 1989 supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (the contract No. APVV-0797-12). 5 the sense of exceptionalism they often nurture – one derived from tiations, and other developments that preceded the establishment of mythical narratives of extinction and resurrection – and instead bring the Polish Film Institute. Durys offers a comprehensive overview of the about more nuanced and critical understandings of the similarities and underlying political, legislative, and economic changes, examining the differences between the region’s screen industries. roles key agents such as the institute’s first general director Agnieszka A springboard for this volume was provided by discussions that took Odorowicz played in the process. place after the fifth annual Screen Industries in East-Central Europe From there, the collection turns to changing screen media aesthetics (SIECE) conference held in November 2015 in Bratislava. Founded and in the region, particularly the relationships between the reforming originally organised by the Czech Society for Film Studies in 2011, SIECE post-socialist industries and national production aesthetic trends. has emerged as one of the most relevant conferences in the region. Since one of the goals of this collection was to increase the visibility After being held in the Czech Republic for four years,2 a change of lo- of scholarship on the Slovak screen industries in international circles, it cation and organisation proved particularly challenging when it came begins its examination of the topic with two chapters focused on this to the notion of Slovak cinema’s downfall and its slow but ultimately country. In the first of these, Jana Dudková challenges the received wis- successful re-emergence. In the spirit of this revelation, we decided to dom about a collapse in Slovak television film production in the early bring together ten of the papers presented at this conference, thereby 1990s, suggesting that it was in fact the country’s collapsing cinemat- offering a multifaceted perspective on the transformational processes ic institutions that led to the misconception of Slovak film production of the post-socialist screen industries, and showcasing to an interna- as either non-existent or unworthy of attention. From there, she com- tional readership the research taking place both in Slovakia and the re- pares major trends in live-action television and cinematic production, gion of Central and South-East Europe as a whole. After all, the papers arguing that films made for television both differed from and antici- presented at the conference were not limited to the post-socialist peri- pated the cinematic trends of the day. By contrast, Katarína Mišíková’s od (nor to East-Central Europe), but also covered diverse historiograph- chapter provides an in-depth study of a more recent trend in Slovak ical topics such as the introduction of colour film in the Soviet Union, fiction cinema: “social drama.” She examines various production, textu- technological change in socialist cinemas of the 1950s, and transfor- al, marketing, and distribution strategies employed to reinforce these mations of star images in pre- and post-war Czech cinema.3 The papers film’s “reality effect,” especially the issue of genrification. selected for this collection are, however, organised around issues we At this point, the collection shifts focus to take account of the distinc- considered to be crucial to enriching understandings of those topics tive post-socialist cinemas of other Eastern European countries by structuring the region’s screen media industries after 1989, especially way of two chapters both concerned with the historical experiences privatisation, national cinemas, popular cinema, digitisation, and (glo) of small-nation popular cinemas. In her contribution, Andrea Virginás cal histories. compares the development of Hungarian and Romanian cinema in Accordingly, the collection opens with a consideration of the post-so- the half-decade after these two countries joined the European Union, cialist privatisation of the region’s national film industries and the thereby highlighting their distinctive approaches to audiences and re- transformation of their administration and funding, offering two dis- leases, and challenging the notion of a clash between popular cinema tinct case-studies. In the first of these, Martin Šmatlák examines the and arthouse fare. Thereafter, Balázs Varga analyses Hungarian film lengthy negotiations between the State and film professionals that comedy within the context of a popular cinema aimed at a broad do- would lead in 2009 to the establishment of the Slovak Audiovisual mestic audience, offering important insights into its subgenres, textual Fund as this country’s first relatively autonomous film funding body. conventions, and relationships to pre-1989 output. In the second, Elżbieta Durys focuses on the public discussions, nego- To draw attention to the changes initiated by the new forms of digital delivery that have affected the film and television industries, as well as 2 See <http://www.cefs.cz/konference.html/> [accessed 17 November 2016]. audience experiences thereof, the collection then features two chap- 3 See the full program here: <http://www.udfv.sav.sk/dokumenty/Pro- gram-SIECE.2015.pdf/> [accessed 28 October 2016]. ters focusing on the development of

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