20 October 2008

“Satellite Television as a Link between Migrants and their Country of Origin – cinemas as a meeting place for different cultures”

MEDIA Salles presents
the results of the Cinemamondo research
at Eurovisioni 2008
20 October 2008, 2 p.m. - Palazzetto del Burcardo, Via del Sudario 44, Rome

MEDIA Salles once again keeps the appointment with Eurovisioni, which takes as its 2008 theme “Digital television as a vehicle of social cohesion or social fragmentation”, contributing the results of the first phase in their research on the consumption of films and audiovisual products by foreigners in Italy and on the importance that Italian spectators attribute to films from countries outside Europe or North America.

Launched in 2007 in collaboration with the Festival of African, Asian and Latin American Cinema in Milan and Turin and the Far East Film Festival in Udine, this study is part of the “Cinemamondo” project, by means of which MEDIA Salles aims to make a significant contribution to Italians’ and foreigners’ reciprocal knowledge of one another’s cultures and traditions, partly through cinema workshops in upper secondary schools. This is why “Cinemamondo” has been selected for inclusion in the events in “Mosaico” the Italian programme taking part in the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue.
The cinema as an important tool for getting to know different cultures: this is how the 600 interviewees in the MEDIA Salles research see it, 87% of them declaring that they preferred the big screen for the viewing of Asian, African and South American films.
“If the film theatre emerges as the privileged place for meetings between different cultures,” says Elisabetta Brunella, Secretary General of MEDIA Salles, “television, thanks mainly to satellite channels, is the means by which foreigners maintain a link with their country of origin, language and culture.”
The non-Italian adults interviewed (16% of the total) replied that they used foreign television channels in 63.1% of cases, as against the 25.6% of Italian respondents. For Italian respondents, the nationalities of the channels they watch are prevalently British (52.5%), French (45.5%) and U.S. (35.6%). The non-Italian interviewees prefer French channels (38.8%), British ones (26.5%), African (20.4%) and Arab-speaking channels (14.3%).
Viewing of non-Italian channels proves to be very high amongst the young foreigners interviewed: 67.4% of them – between the ages of 12 and 19 – have, in fact, watched audiovisual productions from their country of origin on TV at least once. These were mostly films (in 64.3% of cases), children’s programmes (64.3%) and cartoons (33.3%).

MEDIA Salles, a project operating within the framework of the European Union's MEDIA Programme, with the support of the Italian Government, fosters theatrical distribution of European audiovisual products, both by high profile campaigns involving Europe's cinema exhibitors and by initiatives to raise the visibility of European productions with industry players and potential audiences, creating specialized information channels on a global scale. Thus the current initiatives from MEDIA Salles dovetail in a program with a triple focus – training, promotion and information – and maximum combined effect.

MEDIA Salles
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E-mail: infocinema@mediasalles.it
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