How do people access movies today? What are the most popular and
powerful channels for media distribution on a global scale? How are
film industries changing in the face of media convergence and
digitisation?

To answer questions such as these, argues Ramon Lobato, we must shift
our gaze away from the legal film business and toward cinema's shadow
economies. All around the world, films are bought from roadside
stalls, local markets, and grocery stores; they are illegally
downloaded and streamed; they are watched in makeshift video clubs, on
street corners, and in restaurants, shops and bars. International film
culture in its actually-existing forms is a messy affair, and it
relies to a great extent on black and grey media markets. Examining
the industrial dynamics of these subterranean film networks across a
number of different sites – from Los Angeles to Lagos, Melbourne to
Mexico City – this book shows how they constitute a central rather
than marginal part of audiovisual culture and commerce.

Combining film industry analysis with cultural theory, Shadow
Economies of Cinema opens up a new area of inquiry for cinema studies,
putting industry research into dialogue with wider debates about
economic informality and commodity circulation. Written in an
accessible style, this book offers an original 'bottom-up' perspective
on the global cinema industry for researchers and students in film
studies, cultural studies, and media and communications.

RAMON LOBATO is Research Fellow at the Swinburne Institute for Social
Research, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia.