From Netflix to MUBI: Exploring the Digital Geographies of Film and Cinema (Alex Hastie)

Paper presented by Alex Hastie (Coventry University) at the Digital Geographies Research Group Annual Symposium 2021, 'Where Next for Digital Geographies? Pathways and Prospects'.

Abstract: This paper calls for renewed interest in the geographies of film and cinema using the lens of the digital. Online streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, and Netflix play an increasingly important role in the distribution of film globally and this has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Their growing power in the industry has yet to be fully appreciated by geographers and can be a catalyst for new geographical insights into film. Drawing on surveys and interviews, this paper explores both the opportunities and challenges created by streaming platforms big and small, from Netflix to MUBI, for audiences. In doing so, it considers the different material and virtual spaces of online film to conceptualise film audiences in relation to issues of access, choice, and taste, all of which are regulated by the digital: the devices used to watch films (e.g. mobile phones, smart TVs, laptops, tablets), the software for curation and recommendation (e.g., algorithms), and the growing range of online film platforms available to watch films. This paper, then, draws upon and contributes to emerging work in digital geographies by interrogating the uneven geographies of digital film and the ways in which they shape what Ash, Kitchin, and Leszczynski (2018) refer to as ‘spatial understandings, embodied knowledge, political awareness and social relationships’.