Iris Vandevelde

Diasporic Film Cultures from a Multi-level Perspective: Moroccan and Indian Cinematic Flows In and Towards Antwerp (Belgium)

How and to what extent are diasporic film cultures influenced by power structures and power shifts? This question is addressed in a twofold case study of Moroccan and Indian film structures in the city of Antwerp (Belgium). The analysis presented here is based on 27 semi-structured interviews with experts such as distributors, exhibitors, social workers, and programming managers. The research results, uncovering a complex model of multileveled power structures, demonstrate that developments in diasporic film cultures are not only dependent on homeland production, but are also crucially influenced by local actors, who determine those developments to a large degree. It is further demonstrated that networks of both legal and informal/illegal transnational and transdiasporic circulation play crucial, intertwining roles. The case studies thus show how diasporic media consumption and film in particular can only fully be grasped when attempting to understand the tension between local environment, its position within transnational networks, and homeland industries.

Bollywood and turkish films in Antwerp (Belgium): two case studies on diasporic distribution and exhibition

Abstract This article, a contribution to the thriving scholarship on the engagements between homeland media and diasporic audiences, breaks new ground through a comparative, political economy inspired analysis of two case studies with transnational implications. First we describe the theatrical distribution and exhibition of homeland films towards/by their diasporas, focusing on Indian and Turkish film structures in one location, the Belgian city of Antwerp. Interviews with 45 key players, participant observation and complementary archival research allow us to reconstruct how privately organised film screenings were substituted by commercial initiatives. Further analysis exploring the relations between local exhibitors and transnational distributors evaluates these structures against the background of global media industries’ developments in terms of power and transformations, such as increasing competition.

Bollywood tracks towards and through the city : structural patterns of Hindi film culture in Antwerp (Belgium)

The globalisation of Hindi cinema is a topical issue in current media and film research. Whereas the majority of previous studies on Indian film in diaspora have been concerned with issues of audiences and text, this article concentrates on the structural patterns of Hindi film, specifically in the Belgian city of Antwerp. It is inspired by insights from political economy studies which acknowledge the balance of power and global dynamics from a local perspective. Using distribution and exhibition analyses based on interviews, surveys and archival research, this study examines Hindi cinemas tracks towards (selection and distribution) and through (promotion and exhibition) the city, mainly in multiplex theatres. These analyses adopt a historical approach and reconstruct how the exclusive film culture of one community has been transformed into a more elaborate commercial enterprise, revealing both continuity and change in power relations, public, urban and transnational spaces as well as audience management. This study demonstrates the dependency of a diasporic film culture on the greater context of global cinema history, and the way in which peripheral marketplaces such as Antwerp are becoming increasingly subject to transnational corporations and their strategies.

Reconversion to Hinduism: A Hindu Nationalist Reaction Against Conversion to Christianity and Islam

Abstract From the broader debate on the phenomenon of conversion, it becomes clear that conversion to Christianity and Islam generates discomfort in Indian society. Moreover reconversion to Hinduism, which often goes unnoticed in this controversy, also exists. What kinds of phenomena are labelled as reconversion? What meanings do they have? Based on fieldwork and interviews, alongside analyses of media coverage and archival research, this article gives an overview of the different kinds of reconversion from the end of the nineteenth century up to the present and analyses its conceptualisation by both its critics and its promoters. From these analyses follows the conclusion that reconversion is mainly a tool to arrest Christian and Muslim conversions.

Sharing the Silver Screen: The Social Experience of Cinemagoing in the Indian Diaspora

Despite the growing attention paid to the social practice of cinemagoing and to Indian diasporic film cultures, little research has combined these two topics. This article looks into issues of community as well as discursive practices occurring at the intersection of these two phenomena. First, it examines the physical community formation generated by the theater space as a setting for watching homeland films, in accordance with more general theories about diasporic communities and media consumption (Georgiou, 2006). Second, it looks into the audience discourses that precede and follow the actual cinemagoing act (Gillespie, 2002; Staiger, 2000). Based on a case study in the Belgian city of Antwerp, large-scale as well as in-depth insights are developed through a multi-method approach, combining analyses of in-depth interviews with the results of an exploratory cinema survey. These revealed that Indian diasporic cinemagoing is limited in its community-forming function (by issues of comfort, audience diversity, as well as behavioral conformism to a Western context) and is characterized by transnational discursive practices informing film preferences. A general change in the social experience of cinemagoing occurred in the diasporic context when compared to India and intercommunity differences found expression in cinemagoing culture.

Revisiting the NRI ‘genre’: Indian diasporic engagements with NRI and multiplex films

As a nodal point in the global presence of Indian cinema, films about Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) have become a cherished object of textual analysis. Research on this topic has challenged diasporic representations in the NRI ‘genre’, but at the same time has linked them up with actual diasporas. Based on the results of an audience study conducted through in-depth interviews, this article critically reviews the consumption of NRI films by diasporic audiences. The responses of diasporic Indians to such films in Antwerp (Belgium) revealed that this audience related neither to the implied diasporic spectator nor to the actual audience nor to the diasporic representations in these films in a straightforward way. Therefore, the article equally assesses the diasporic Indian consumption of ‘multiplex films’ and the preference for realism related to the latter.