Rethinking Contemporary Ecuadorian Cinema

Abstract

This essay argues that while historically enmeshed in a precarious production and distribution context, Ecuador’s cinema has recently embraced this condition with the introduction of low-budget film productions, which in turn have reimagined the national industry landscape. Informed by scholarship on precarity and the precarization of labor in particular, this chapter studies how by proposing a new business model whereby film industries attract local audiences, create sufficient funds for frequent productions, and establish uncommon exhibition venues, Ecuador’s low-priced productions are able to provide a creative path towards the acceptance of pervasive precarity in the country while also highlighting it as a main selling point in local films. By focusing on Fernando Cedeño’s Sicarios manabitas (2004), this chapter further studies the industry’s diverse underpinnings as it works on developing new and stronger relationships with local audiences and promotes alternative financing and distribution systems while proving resourceful despite its lack of state funds.