1 Kristen Daly kmd85@columbia.edu MiT6 Conference April 24-26, 2009 Working Draft (Not for circulation without express permission of the author.) Radical Potential: How New Technology and Increased Digital Literacy Is Changing Communication with Moving Images In his 1969 essay, “For an Imperfect Cinema,” Cuban filmmaker Julio Garcia Espinosa calls for an abolition of elites in the art of filmmaking. He anticipates a time when filmmaking will become a “popular art” rather than a “mass art,” an art created by the masses not by the few for the masses. He says that scientists, sociologists, physicians and economists should make films, not elite filmmakers and he looks toward a future where the masses will take over what he calls “the most elite of contemporary arts.” 1 He declares that Imperfect Cinema must “show the process which generates the problems. It is thus the opposite of a cinema principally dedicated to celebrating results, the opposite of a self-sufficient and contemplative cinema . . .Imperfect cinema is no longer interested in quality or technique. It can be created equally well with a Mitchell or with an 8mm camera, in a studio or in a guerrilla camp in the middle of a jungle.” 2 Filmmaking has been one of the most expensive art forms. Traditional barriers to entry and hierarchies are crumbling with falling costs and a growing literacy in rich media. Cinema has changed from an economy of scarcity to one of ubiquity. The ubiquity and accessibility has changed how people use moving images. From a form of ritual entertainment and art, moving images are increasing becoming a means for interactive communication and means of negotiating power. In this paper, I will present 1 Julio Garcia Espinosa, "For an Imperfect Cinema," in Film and Theory : An Anthology, ed. Toby Miller (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Publishers, 2000). 2 Ibid., 296.