Abstract
Latin American film industries seem more vital than ever if one attends to the rhythm of production, growth of exhibition infrastructure and the expansion of audiences. Mexico, for example, ranks fourth worldwide in theatres and spectators. There are, however, several paradoxes:  theatres multiplied, but only in big cities, so most rural and less populated areas have none. Film production has been reactivated and screens continue to increase, but mostly to accommodate the Hollywood films (that seize the best seasons and schedules). Moreover, they reorganized consumption, transforming the going to the cinema in the cultural practices of the audience: more movies are seen than ever, but through television, pirated videos, mobile phones and the internet. The seminar outlines this scenario and the profiles of an audio-visual policy that could go beyond the promotion of production and enable cinema to reach out to broad layers of the population and their right to diversity.


Bio note

Ana Rosas Mantecón is an anthropologist, professor and researcher at the Autonomous Metropolitan University of Mexico. She specialized in research on cultural consumption and artistic reception with studies on public museums, cinema, television, video, dance halls, rock, cultutural tourism, architectural heritage representations in historic centres, organisations linking creativity and social inclusion, as well as urban cultural policies. Her book Ir al cine. Antropologia de los públicos will be published this year by Gedisa.

Activity within the Doctoral Programme 'Cities and Urban Cultures'