Distribution and Reception

This chapter is focused on how researchers interested in religion and film have considered the distribution and reception of scripted content as it has been made available through the film and television industries and, more recently, via YouTube. It considers scholarship that has developed in differing contexts around the world, with particular attention to the global South. It begins with an overview of scholarship that has focused on practices of reception, production, and distribution of film, television, and other screen media, as these traditions have provided a foundation for the study of the reception and distribution of religion and film as well as television. The chapter’s second section considers the ways that scholars interested in religion and film as well as television have incorporated distribution and reception studies into their work. In the third section of this chapter, three case studies are introduced that build on these traditions: one that considers the rise of Pure Flix in the US; one looking at religion, representation, distribution and reception in the context of the rise of Nollywood; and a third that considers religion and film and other screen media and their distribution and reception in Indonesia. These case studies provide a way to model an important future direction in the study of religion and film: attention to the specific economic, political, and social contexts where religious dimensions emerge in film, television, and other screen media.