Consecretion and Reputation Among the Independents: Reflections on the Case of Contemporary Independent Cinema in Brazil

The communication brings some findings of the author´s ongoing PhD research to discuss consecration and legitimation among those who play "independent" roles in fields of symbolic production. The research focuses on the social organization of contemporary independent cinema in Brazil. Mobilizing mainly elements of Bourdieusian theory but also contributions of authors such as Raymond Williams, David James and Sarah Thornton, the study analyses the main independent filmmakers' groups in Brazil, their main instances of legitimation and the principal social arrangements that make independent production possible.

Independent film production, characterized mainly by its low budgets and by the absence of a hierarchical division of labor, acquires increasing recognition by consecration instances ­of traditional Brazilian cinema. It is also notable a proliferation of specific instances – such as independent film festivals or distribution companies focused on independent production –, which may indicate the beggining of an autonomization process. 

Here we bring empirical data to situate the contemporary independent production in the large Brazilian cinema field and especially to show how reputation and consecration here are constructed in opposition to the values/practices of industrial cinema. And it means not only the adoption of certain aesthetic positions, but also the adoption of some practices in terms of social organization of production. We also call attention to the fact that, among the independents, consecration sometimes brings the "reverse effect" of threatening the representation of independence – which is a subject of dispute.

How to understand independent agents, for which categories as dominant or dominated, established or newcomers, are all unsuitable in some extent? How to analyse the construction of consecration in a context where the many forms of institutionalization (including some kinds of recognition) may threaten the very condition of "independent"?