Transnational online streaming services and the distribution of Mexican documentaries: Netflix and Filminlatino in Mexico: Netflix and Filminlatino in Mexico

My purpose in this study is to identify and analyze the characteristics of two online streaming platforms operating in Mexico, Netflix and Filminlatino, as a way to ponder on the changes, benefits and challenges in the production and distribution of Mexican documentary films through this type of internet-distributed services. Netflix is a global dominant force in the business of audiovisual online streaming as well as a transnational film and television producer with offices in different countries, including Mexico. Filminlatino is the Latin American version of FIlmin, a film streaming service created in Spain in 2006. The Mexican government through its film agency, Instituto Mexicano de Cinematografía (IMCINE), has adopted and adapted this platform to showcase classic and contemporary Mexican films as well as some art films from around the world. Filminlatino follows a subscription-based business model, but part of its film catalog is also available for free.
One of the objectives that guide this research seeks to evaluate the level of opportunities that these transnational online streaming services have opened for a broader circulation of local documentaries, or if little has changed in the distribution landscape for Mexican documentary films. That is, within a Mexican context, if the circulation of documentary films remains at the margins of the mainstream film markets as Bill Nichols has mentioned decades ago (Representing 15). Or, at what degree digital distribution has favored the circulation of this film genre.
In the introduction of Netflix Nations, Ramon Lobato talks about how some countries have reacted toward the impact that transnational streaming services may have on local film production and distribution. He explains that one of his research goals is to answer questions such as where and how internet-distributed content circulates and where and how does not (3-4). Following a similar perspective, I also aim to highlight how streaming services, such as Netflix and Filminlatino, shape what is available and what is not in the Mexican field of documentary films. As Garnharm has mentioned before, it is not cultural production, but cultural distribution that is the key locus of power and profit while access to distribution is the key to cultural diversity (Capitalism 160-62).
Works Cited
Garnham, Nicholas. Capitalism and communication: global culture and the economics of information. Ed. Fred Inglis. London; Newbury Park: Sage Publications, 1990.
Lobato, Ramon. Netflix nation: the geography of digital distribution. New York: NYU Press, 2019.
Nichols, Bill. Representing reality: issues and concepts in documentary. Bloomington: Indiana
University Press, 1991.