Elsevier

Language & Communication

Volume 76, January 2021, Pages 154-162
Language & Communication

Barriers and opportunities for cinema distribution in European minority languages. The case of O que arde in the Digital Single Market

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.11.006Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Films in minority languages in Europe find more barriers to circulate that those in the official languages of the EU.

  • Diversity is the main value of the audiovisual regulations of the EU but only official languages can benefit from it.

  • The European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages reports do not find profitable investing in audiovisual translation.

  • Actions for the circulation of cinema in EU audiovisual policies systematically neglect regional and minority languages.

  • Subtitling is the best instrument for the circulation and accessibility of films produced in minority languages.

Abstract

The barriers which exist for European cinema distribution - problems with international distribution, and different practices of audiovisual translation - have a great impact in films produced in European minority languages, meaning that they find it hard to compete with larger-scale productions. Although minority and regional languages are protected by EU legislation and diversity is a key element in the Union's narrative, audiovisual policies do not directly address this protection. This article examines legislation connected with minority languages, on the one hand, and cinema, on the other, and presents a case study on the film produced in Galician O que arde (Oliver Laxe, 2019) to analyse the challenges that small cinemas face in the Digital Single Market.

Introduction

Although ‘Unity in Diversity’ has been the motto of the cultural philosophy of the European Union in recent decades, those words are in clear contrast with the economic vocation of the single market, and also the unequal conditions faced by the arts in different member states. Concerns about the ‘erosion of the cultural dimension upon which European public service tradition has been based’ (Burgelman and Pauwels, 1992, p. 169) have increased with the launching of the Digital Single Market (DSM) for the arts. The DSM considers access, environment, and economy & society to be the three pillars on which the distribution of cultural goods in the EU is based. Among the 16 key actions designed to improve digitalisation, the DSM envisaged a review of the audiovisual media framework “focusing on the roles of the different market players in the promotion of European works” (European Commission, 2015a) and “comprehensively analyse the role of online platforms (…) in the market” (European Commission, 2015a). Cultural diversity is also mentioned in connection with the demand for a more harmonious copyright regime which ‘provides incentives to create and invest while allowing transmission and consumption of content across borders, building on our rich cultural diversity’ (European Commission, 2015b).

The idea of a digital single market raises some concerns about films in minority languages on the European market. If distribution is considered the Achilles' heel of European cinema due to ‘huge organisational and economic difficulties, which are rendered even more difficult by language barriers’ (European Parliament, 2020), there are even greater obstacles to the distribution of films in minority and regional languages throughout this market. Although these languages are protected in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), but it is even harder for them to obtain audiovisual translation (AVT) than for state languages.

Different AVT practices act as barriers in spite of the idea of linguistic diversity as an inherently positive value. The Scandinavian countries and Holland, Belgium, Portugal and Greece generally subtitle films (Gottlieb, 1992:169), whereas dubbing is the preferred practice in countries where there is strong defence to the national language for political reasons – for instance, in Germany, Italy, France and Spain. These different translation models for audiovisual contents can create further difficulties for minority languages in the European Union, but, at the same time, language transfer could help ‘to promote the international sales potential of productions, especially from the smaller linguistic communities’ (Luyken, 1991:4–5).

This paper studies how diversity narrative in the EU affects films produced in minority languages by examining the legal texts that regulate distribution and screening in the European market and the protection of minority languages. It also analyses the strategies for producing and distributing O que arde (Oliver Laxe, 2019 – Fire will come), a film produced in Galician, which is a European minority language. This independent film can serve to illustrate the difficulties and opportunities that a film produced in a European minority language faces in the competitive European market.

Section snippets

The concept of diversity in European Union arts policies

The origin of the concept cultural diversity can be traced in the debate about trade and the arts which took place in negotiations over the World Trade Organization's (WTO) General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) after World War II. The concept of ‘cultural exception’, especially applied to audiovisual production, and defended by Canada and France, led to a re-conceptualization that ‘gave the expressed cultural aspirations a more positive (but also more proactive) connotation’ (Burri, 2010

Objectives

Taking into account the difficulties facing films produced in minority languages to position themselves in the market, and their dependence on institutional support, it is important to examine how the EU policies address the most precarious productions and their distribution. The main objective, therefore, is to study the construction of the narrative of diversity in the policies, as well as its implementation in practical terms. In parallel, the second objective is to examine the relevance of

The European charter of regional and minority languages

The European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages is the most wide-reaching legal framework for the protection of non-hegemonic languages in the EU. Since it was passed in June 1992 it has been ratified by 25 member states. The Charter promotes the use of these languages in public life, thus boosting linguistic and cultural diversity. In Article 12, particularly in sections B and C, member states are urged to foster ‘translation, dubbing, post-synchronisation and subtitling activities’ in

Regulation and funding of audiovisual productions in the UE

The distribution of European cinema is the weakest link in the audiovisual production chain: ‘European films travel less than US films and are available in fewer countries’ (The European Film Forum, 2020a). One of the priorities of EU audiovisual policies is to achieve better distribution for its products. In this sense, regulations have introduced measures to increase the distribution of European cinema, with the ideas of access and diversity in the background. Successive directives have dealt

The success of O que arde (Oliver Laxe, 2019): a remarkable exception?

In the photo shoot of the presentation of O que arde at Cannes in 2019 an old lady, with long silver hair and curious eyes, danced a muiñeira, a traditional dance, and insisted on speaking in her language, Galician, although she was aware that no one would understand her. Benedicta is one of the non-professional actors who lead the film, the story of a pyromaniac who returns from jail to his home in the mountains to live with his aged mother. Awarded with the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, O que

Discussion and conclusions

Current regulations for audiovisual and minority languages in the EU, along with their practical application, show a clear distance between the wishful thinking expressed in reports and legal texts, and the real efficiency in protecting linguistic diversity as economic and technological perspectives prevail over any cultural approach to cinema distribution.

The nature of the legislation is eminently economic and aimed at achieving better film distribution, for which linguistic diversity is

Financing projects

EUVOS. Intangible Cultural Heritage. For an European Programme for Subtitling in Non-Hegemonic Languages FEDER/Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y UniversidadesAgencia Estatal de Investigación/ ref. CSO2016-76014-R and Department of Education, Culture and Language Policy of the Basque Country (IT-881-16).

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