By José Luis Ávila
No one in their right mind could imagine in advance that drive-ins would return in 2020, and that the best live concerts would be held on the balconies of the world's great capitals or through the screens of the YouTube social network.
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed one of the great maxims of our time:
culture is a basic resource
.
Even today, we have been able to overcome mobility restrictions and social distancing thanks to the boom in digital culture.
Among our favorites, we have
Fito Páez
singing
Mariposa tecknicolor
from the living room of his house in Buenos Aires;
to
Daniela Mercury
dancing for almost three hours -
accompanied at times by his family to celebrate the day of the LGBTQ pride;
to
Caetano Veloso
offering a free concert in the
company of their children on YouTube;
to
Jorge Drexler
doing the same from Madrid;
or the exciting interpretation of
Nessun Dorma
(I will
win, I will win
), from the opera Turandot by Puccini, by the orchestra and choir of the Gran Teatro Liceu in Barcelona.
Steven Spielberg's movie Jaws is screened at a drive-in theater in Pasadena, California, on July 2, 2020.REUTERS
It must be said that the cultural and entertainment sector was one of the most generous in serving the troubled audience this year.
Hundreds of thousands of free content were made available to users around the world.
The catalog of films, plays, concerts, documentaries and more, was made available to everyone.
For the sample, the shows at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.
A blow to musicians, producers and entertainment employees
Although culture has become more accessible to people this year, the fact that cultural products became free during the pandemic appears as a new challenge to overcome for the survival of the sector.
“It was a mistake, as it was to hang entire newspapers in the past decade on the media websites.
Luckily, the idea of subscription and the importance of paying for content or works is slowly taking hold.
And to support artists and authors through Patreon and other strategies, ”explained Jorge Carrión, author of
Lo viral.
Written by Carrión and edited by Galaxia Gutenberg, the publication - resolved in record time - is essential to understand the most "crazy" year of our lives.
This is how it begins: “In the morning (November 17, 2019) an unknown virus enters the body of a 55-year-old man whose name we also do not know.
In the afternoon the XXI century begins ”.
[2020 was difficult but not always bad: a cat, the Moon, a movie and 7 other positive things this year]
And, as the author of
Against Amazon says
, no phenomenon has been as viral as that of virality itself.
“I think we are experiencing the first doubly viral pandemic in history, which
has spread with the same speed through bodies and screens
.
We have increased the daily time we spend watching series, social networks or telecommuting.
But at the same time, the rate of reading paper books or the time of physical exercise has risen.
I believe that this tension between the analog and the virtual marks our time, ”Carrión replied from Barcelona.
The global nature of the audience was imposed
Ángel Ancona, coordinator of the Mexico City theater system, told Noticias Telemundo that
the risks and damages to the sector persist and are difficult to calculate amid the new rebound in coronavirus cases.
52 couples in Nuevo León, Mexico, got married through the Zoom app
June 20, 202000: 26
The broadcasts of the
Timbre 4
company
from Argentina, or the initiative of Venezuelan actors and producers
Teatro Zoom
, has been the highlight of a year in which the borders of culture were erased and the global character of the audience was imposed.
“Many artistic companies have managed to obtain a resource after disseminating their material through a platform, including online classes and courses, this opens a new circumstance, it is the first starting point, a new language will have to be developed, a new dramaturgy for each one of the disciplines and especially to be transmitted through the screens, that is how radio soap operas and soap operas began in the 20th century ”, he said.
The year of the screens was also that of
José Luis Pardo
, the musician, dj, music producer and former member of the Venezuelan band
Los Amigos Invisibles
.
With his popular party,
#CasaeCheo
on the social network Instagram and Twitch, he got thousands of viewers dancing in Latin America from mid-May until the end of this year.
José Luis Pardo, Venezuelan musician, dj and music producer.
Courtesy Ceho Pardo
Noticias Telemundo spoke with him: “I remember going to Instagram in April and it seemed like the Coachella festival.
Everything that was happening was really impressive so I decided to put on music on Fridays
, first thinking of sending a little good vibes to my compatriots in Venezuela and around the world, but then an audience from Mexico, Colombia, the United States began to arrive.
It was crazy and a nice surprise ”, says Cheo from his residence in New York.
His popular party, which
reached more than 3,000 connected users
, almost always on Friday nights, connected with the nostalgia of the Venezuelan migration, and with music as an integrating and vital factor for all.
After the success of the initiative, Cheo started a collection through online payment platforms such as Patreon, Zelle and PayPal to rescue the musical legacy of Venezuela and re-record great classics by artists such as Mirtha Pérez, Yordano, Diveana, Los Melódicos, and many more.
Far from ending,
the
live shows
of the Venezuelan musician and producer will continue as a window for the dissemination of his new projects.
“I was always very envious of how Mexicans, from the taxi driver to the top, know and defend the musical culture of their country;
which is what I am now trying with these new recordings of the greatest hits of Venezuelan music.
Many of my colleagues recorded these songs in labels that do not exist today and lost the rights to their own music.
It's time to do something about it, ”concludes and celebrates Cheo, who has regained her celebrity with her parties on Instagram.
And speaking of celebrations, the best parties for Zoom this year –with DJs included– were those of
Radio Ambulante
, the podcast that tells stories from Latin America, one of the most popular and successful in Spanish.
For the celebration of his eighth birthday, more than 600 people from all over the region came to connect, dancing from their halls, gardens or rooms;
alone, as a couple, with their children or pets.
Radio Ambulante Zoom Party.
Angela Pinilla Herrera
“The initiative was another way to connect with our audience in the region, to find ourselves in the middle of the pandemic.
We were also able to find a new form of financing, which is always one of the challenges we face on a daily basis.
It was demonstrated that users express their loyalty to independent projects like ours through donations ranging from $ 10 to $ 100, ”confirmed Jorge Caraballo, editor of Radio Ambulante.
Against boredom
The Netflix documentaries,
The Last Dance
, about the legacy of Michael Jordan, and
Mucho Mucho Amor
, about the life of the most famous and beloved astrologer in Latin America, Walter Mercado were a real delight for the audience, as well as the
Cobra
series
Kai
,
Gambito de dama
,
The Crown
and
Homemade
(the project that brings together a series of short films about the pandemic, led by Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín), all from Netflix.
'Much, much love', the documentary that reveals great secrets of the life of Walter Mercado
Aug. 11, 202003: 08
Without leaving out the film
Mank
, owner of one of the most ironic and brilliant scripts in recent cinema.
To this list we also add the HBO series,
We are who we are
, by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino;
and
My brilliant friend
, the series inspired by Elena Ferrante's novel and produced by Paolo Sorrentino.
Continuing with the film premieres this 2020, three Latin American films shone during this atypical year.
The Chilean film based on the novel by Pedro Lemebel,
I have a fear of a bullfighter
, added more than 170,000 viewers in its
avant premiere
via
streaming
last September.
The Mexican ones,
Nuevo Orden
by Michel Franco (winner of the Silver Lion at this year's Venice Film Festival), and
El baile de los 41
by David Pablos, were able to premiere in theaters.
Actors Josh O'Connor and Emma Corrin portray Charles and Diana in the fourth season of 'The Crown.' Des Willie / Netflix /
This was also the year of Spotify.
The popular music platform reported that between May 5 and July 30 of this year,
more than 127,000 playlists
were created
with the word "boredom"
in the title.
Some of the songs most added to these lists were:
I Don't Care
by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber,
When the party is over
by Billie Eilish,
High Hopes
by Panic!
At The Disco, and
The Less I Know, The Better
From Tame Impala.
But the most played song this 2020 was
Blinding Light
s by The Weeknd.
Is it the best of the year?
We leave it to your consideration.
As the philosopher Victoria Camps affirms,
this 2020 has shown us that culture is true self-help.
Happy New Year!