Mode of production

Image credit: foto by Vanilla Bear Films for Unsplash

Given their growing importance as a share of cultural production and their undeniable impact, representations of ageing and gender in film point to the fact that old age is no longer just a challenge for economic, health and social policy but a concern for cultural policy. Increased longevity creates a demand for a reorganization of leisure. This includes the creation of new forms of shared experiences geared towards ageing and cross-generational audiences. With a view to cinema, this requires policy frameworks for targeted funding for film production and programming in heritage and festivals.

To make such frameworks more effective it is not sufficient to vaguely treat the emergence of new representations of old age and gender as a response to demographic change. Rather, we need to understand such roles and representations as outcomes of highly specific, situated and often contentious decision-making processes at the level of production and distribution. One possible explanation, which the project proposes to put to an empirical test through ethnographic methods and archival research, is that in European production systems sustained by national and supranational funding schemes the triangle of public funding, screenwriting and acting affords women and particularly older women more decision-making power than more directly commercial production systems (Bernárdez-Rodal/Menéndez-Menéndez 2014, Fanchi/Tarantino 2019). Patterns such as those seen in Spain since 2018 suggest that the prioritization of ring-fenced funding for women-led projects is beginning to have a positive impact on sector access and diversity of outputs (Suárez 2020). The challenge is to determine which factors allow for a more inclusive politics of representation, particularly with a view to possible future policy prescriptions in film production and distribution funding.

All copyrighted materials included on this website are used for educational purposes in accordance with fair use guidelines.