The Disintegration of Spanish Cinema

Abstract

A subjective consideration and objective analysis of the multiple ways in which the subject, form and academic discipline of Spanish cinema may, for better and worse, be understood to have undergone disintegration in recent years. Beginning with the dissolution of Spanish cinema as a national cinema and progressing to a fragmentation of Spanish identity into regional and community cinemas that is partly spurred by academic methodologies and frameworks, this article then turns to the effects of the digital revolution and finds that the process and format of filmmaking have been transformed too. A concluding examination of the disintegration of viewing practices in Spain, the surge in online production and distribution, and the decline of the art-house cinema leads to the case study of contemporary Basque cinema and a demonstration of how this disintegration is not necessarily a negative development for regional cinemas, aspiring filmmakers and academics who aim to close the gap between academic research and actual filmmaking.