International Symposium “Streaming in the Global South”

On January 18-20, the International Symposium “Streaming in the Global South” will take place at the Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies at Vilnius University (VU). This international symposium focuses on the relatively understudied topic of streaming platforms and their dissemination in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

Scholars at the symposium will discuss the peculiarities of streaming platforms in different contexts of Asian, Latin American, and African countries, the distribution and consumption of streaming content, as well as changes in the narratives and aesthetics of films produced and distributed by streaming platforms. The symposium will be held in the J. Kovalevskis Auditorium at VU Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies. The programme for the symposium can be found here.

The symposium “Streaming in the Global South” is the concluding event of the research and collaboration project “South Asian cinema and video online distribution research network”. The project is initiated and led by Prof. Valentina Vitali (Birmingham City University) and VU Institute of Asian and Transcultural Studies Associate Professor Deimantas Valančiūnas. This interdisciplinary project explores how streaming platforms for films (such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, etc.) impact the content and aesthetics of independent films by South Asian filmmakers. Researchers, scholars, film producers, and directors from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Bhutan, Myanmar, and Afghanistan are involved in the project.

The project and symposium are funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom. More information about the project can be found here.