At the end of 2019, weeks before the outbreak of the pandemic, the National Cinematheque reported a record attendance for the sixth consecutive year. Just over 1.2 million people visited the facilities in the Xoco neighborhood that year and allowed an income of 98 million pesos.
The most emblematic complex for the diffusion of independent cinema consolidated a program capable of generating double the money in income compared to its annual public budget (43.6 million pesos).
But the beginning of the spread of covid-19 in our country, in March 2020, drastically changed its favorable trend. With the implementation of the National Healthy Distance Day, at the end of the same month, the complete closure of the venue was prolonged by a lethargy of more than four months. In August it was possible to reopen, but with a capacity of 30% in theaters. That was not all, the rise of the second wave of infections in the last straight of the year again led to the total closure.
That first year of the pandemic, of absolute closures and a restrictive reactivation, allowed self-generation of just 30 million pesos (less than a third of what it had been capturing), according to Alejandro Pelayo Rangel, director of the National Cinematheque, declared.
One more year of uncertainty
2021, although it was a year of progress in the vaccination campaign, it was not a panacea either. Due to the rise of the second wave, in January, the National Cinematheque could not resume its activities until March, with a capacity of 30%. Last June the traffic light in the Mexican capital finally changed to green and, with this, the relaxation of a large part of the restrictions. But the luck lasted a couple of months. The third wave of infections, starting in August, again limited capacity.
All this health swing limited the Cineteca a record of 468,000 viewers (less than half of 2019) and income of 47 million pesos, according to preliminary figures shared with this medium by the venue’s Sub-Directorate of Dissemination. The figures indicate that this year the space generated 56% more than the ill-fated 2020, but less than half of the revenues of 2019.
Own resources have been crucial
“In general, in a year without a pandemic, the National Cinematheque generates twice the resources it receives through the budget,” confirms Alfredo del Valle, deputy director of Broadcasting.
In a year without a pandemic, the self-generated ones, he adds, “were enough to cover the needs of the workforce, for the acquisition of new equipment and other types of investment”, but in these two years, with the drop in own resources, he points out, it prioritized the continuity of the workforce, both basic and for fees, and acquisition projects and other investments were postponed.
The public resources that the film venue receives are assigned in the PEF for each year, via Branch 48, Culture, and are injected into the Trust for the National Cinematheque, one of the few that exempted the extinction of the 2020 trusts. PEF 2019 the complex received 43.6 million pesos; For 2020 it was allocated 47.3 million pesos and in the 2021 budget, 43.2 million pesos, while for the fiscal year 2022 the budget will be 44.8 million.
“The Cineteca has a budget with which it maintains itself, with which it works, but its own income is very important for all other activities. And if we are talking about that this year we had half a million viewers, the amount of own income decreased by more than 60%. All the money that we used to have to spend on exhibitions, rights, etc., we no longer had ”, stated Nelson Carro in a meeting with the media days ago.
The works on the future headquarters of the Cineteca in Chapultepec are progressing. According to forecasts by the federal and capital authorities, which are working together on the priority project, it is planned that at some point in 2022, certain activities of this headquarters will begin in the fourth section of the forest. It remains to see what activities will be and if they will use resources from the Trust for the National Film Archive or will have another source. The new venue, it is planned, should operate at 100% in 2023. We will have to pay attention in the middle of next year if the economic package includes an increase for the Cineteca, which will soon have two venues to feed.
Last June, the National Cinematheque launched its Virtual Room, an alternative to guarantee public access to at least part of the cinematographic programming. Since then, the platform has allowed the virtual approach of more than 10,000 viewers. “We want to strengthen the Virtual Room so that all those who have heard of the Cineteca in the country can have access to similar programming, let’s say, with the same criteria, without neglecting the Cineteca public,” said Nelson Carro, Programming Director of the enclosure.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx