Verheul, Jaap (2020) Opening the vault: streaming the film library in the age of pandemic content. In, Keidl, Philipp Dominik, Melamed, Laliv, Hediger, Vinzenz and Somaini, Antonio (eds.) Pandemic Media: Preliminary Notes Toward an Inventory. (Configurations of Film) Lüneburg, Germany. Meson Press, pp. 50-59. (doi:10.14619/0085).
Abstract
“Opening the Vault” examines the renewed currency of the film library – or a catalogue of existing content – during the Covid-19 pandemic, when the production of new motion pictures came to a halt, and subscription-based streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+, and Mubi unleashed a copyright war to obtain the licensing of film titles which they subsequently reissued on their home video platform. In the process, these non-theatrical screening platforms augmented the value of their vaults while solidifying their position as principal gatekeepers of the circulation of moving images. This chapter thus reorients the study of global screen cultures away from the production of new content and toward an understanding of the film library as a primary site of our engagement with pandemic media.
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