Transnational Production, International Policy, and South African Cinema

It has by now become customary within national cinema studies to appreciate that all national cinemas are influenced to varying degrees by transnational movements of talent, capital and ideas. This article seeks to examine some of the ways that South African cinema and the South African film industry have been shaped by various forms of transnational production, including official coproductions, coproductions made outside the auspices of official treaties, or runaway productions. As film policy in South Africa and other countries has helped to foster such forms of transnational production, the article also seeks to provide an overview of the nation's efforts to form international coproduction treaties. As these have proliferated since the 2000s, the article explores the output of the countries many pacts and asks what has been gained and possibly lost from these deals for South Africa´s filmmaking community. The article closes with a discussion of the ways in which the nation´s international policy instruments might evolve in order to better serve its filmmakers.

Transnational Production, International Policy, and South African Cinema Articles