‘Why study cinema?’ experiences of crisis and future making in the Portuguese film production sector

The article examines the discourses and positions that emerged in the Summer and Autumn of 2020, during the public discussion of bill 44/XIV, which regulated the operation of subscription video on demand (SVOD) services in Portugal. The bill was perceived as a moment of change and impending crisis and divided the film-making sector. Based on a longitudinal ethnographic study of film production practices in Portugal, I ask what made this crisis different from previous and ongoing experiences of crisis. I draw on interviews, informal conversations, participant observation, and published documents to discuss how ideas of the local, national and transnational, discourses of quality and diversity, and practices of future making and life making converged in the defence of a film production culture to which older and younger practitioners attributed a non-economic (or more-than-economic) value considered worth preserving.