Digital Movie Distribution: Technological Engagement, Institutional Transgression, and Mediatic Experience in the Online Release of Steal This Film II

Abstract

Certain instances of technological development seem to challenge the conventional media apparatus. The emergence of digital information networks, for example, was initially considered as a threat to the economy and organization of cinema, since it allowed a broad, unauthorized proliferation of films. Within time, however, it seems like the tension between this technology and the medium has been dispersed. The new structural possibilities have been crystallized in platforms such as Netflix and the iTunes Store, which came to constitute lucrative channels for the distribution of audiovisual works. Thus, the (previously disruptive) technologies have been localized within the cinematographic circuit, contributing to the preservation of the medium’s institutional standards. Nowadays, even BitTorrent, a file-transfer protocol largely associated with movie piracy, is being used as an official release format for commercial works —for example, the fictional feature Cafuné (2006), the series Pioneer One (2010), and the documentary The Yes Men Fix the World (2009). In this paper, we will give an overview of this transformation in the mediatic role of technology, supporting the idea that it not only promotes a reorganization of the medium underpinnings, but also generates new forms of mediatic engagement. In order to show that, we will analyze the release of Steal This Film (2006), a two-part documentary about movie piracy whose dynamics of on-line distribution are meant to propose a legal dilemma to its audience.