“So-Called Runaway Film Production”: Countering Hollywood's Outsourcing Narrative in the Canadian Press

Abstract

This article explores how the global film industry and the issue of “runaway film production”—a term coined by U.S. film interests to describe the outsourcing of film labor to cheaper foreign locales—are being constructed outside the U.S. The discourse of runaway film production explicitly describes Hollywood as the authentic “home” of film production, crediting the success of thriving non-U.S. film production centers like Vancouver, BC, to anti-competitive labor and subsidy practices. This article examines the counter discourses to “so-called runaway film production” in Canadian popular and trade media, as Canada has been the target of much “runaway” talk in the U.S. and Hollywood for the last two decades. Three key themes identified in Canadian press coverage of “so-called runaway film production” are cultural imperialism, pro-globalization, and indigenous industry emancipation—themes which are argued to provide some insight into the Canadian worldview of media industries, globalization, and particularly the role of U.S. media in such practices.