Making a Case for piratas: Understanding the Complexity of Piracy in Colombia from the Vendor’s Standpoint

In Latin American countries, piracy has been a way to access films for different audiences since VHS technology became popular. Piracy has been equally relevant to elite filmmakers interested in particular titles and ordinary audiences who just want affordable and easy access to films. Using Colombia as a case study, we discuss some of the nuances that piracy can assume in a national context. Specifically, we argue for an understanding of art-cinema “piratas”– piracy sellers – as cultural brokers through an analysis of piracy as an economic force as well as a business/technical infrastructure. Art-cinema piratas (henceforth we will use the Spanish word) facilitate access to films that are omitted from official exhibition circuits either because of high screening fees or Hollywood’s dominance and sway over moviegoers’ preferences. Despite audiences’ predilection for Hollywood blockbusters, piracy challenges the hegemonic alliances between local film exhibitors and distributors at different levels of distribution. As we will describe below, piratas expand the narrow swatch of options for showcasing art cinema by offering a broader gamut of films to cinephiles, while opening spaces for alternative film distribution to local filmmakers who emerge from lower income socio-economic classes.