Mobile theatres to screen child slavery film in rural India

This news has been read 6506 times!

In streaming wars, Disney reaches beyond kids and families

LOS ANGELES, Nov 12, (RTRS): During commercial breaks in a broadcast of World Wrestling Entertainment’s WWE SmackDown, fans were shown ads for Walt Disney Co’s new streaming service, Disney+. So were “Monday Night Football” viewers and video gamers watching Twitch.

“Try to keep up,” said Captain Marvel in one ad after a series of fast-paced clips from “Star Wars”, “The Simpsons”, “The Avengers” and other Disney-owned hits from outside of its deep catalogue of children’s classics.

Disney’s marketing force is reaching beyond its traditional family audience to send a message that its $7-a-month subscription service Disney+ offers something for all ages. The service debuted on Tuesday in the United States, Canada and The Netherlands.

“It’s incumbent upon us to market it the right way to emphasize the fact that it’s not just for kids,” Disney executive Kevin Mayer said during a briefing at the company’s Burbank, California, headquarters. “It’s all family friendly, but everyone can enjoy this product.”

Disney has told investors it can hook 60 million to 90 million customers within about five years as it competes for customers in a crowded streaming market dominated by Netflix Inc.

Signing up adults who do not have children at home is part of that plan.

Consumers may not realize that after a series of acquisitions Disney is much more than classics like “Cinderella” and “Mary Poppins” that charmed generations of families. The company now owns the celebrated “Star Wars” movie franchise; Iron Man, the Hulk and dozens of other Marvel superheroes; “Toy Story” animation house Pixar, and nature programming channel National Geographic.

Previously released movies and TV series from all of those brands, plus 30 seasons of “The Simpsons”, are available on Disney+ alongside decades of Disney’s family-centric offerings.

Disney+ also offers new programming from those brands.

Promoting

To raise awareness, the company is promoting Disney+ during sports and primetime TV telecasts to get in front of what Hollywood calls the four quadrants of viewers: male, female, young and old.

In addition to the wrestling, football and gaming contests, ads ran during the World Series and the ABC News late-night program “Nightline”, and on social media networks.

Early testing in The Netherlands, where Disney offered a free two-month trial of Disney+, attracted a “very large and diverse audience,” said Mayer, who runs Disney’s direct-to-consumer and international unit.

“Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD”, a series aimed at 18- to 49-year olds, ranked as the most-watched piece of content, Mayer said. Next was tween-oriented show “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” followed by “Disney’s Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”, a cartoon for young children.

Also:

MUMBAI: A film about a boy trafficked to work in a carpet factory is to be screened in remote Indian villages to raise awareness about child slavery among families often targeted by human traffickers.

Due to be released on Thursday, “Jhalki” tracks a nine-year-old girl’s struggle to find her younger brother after their parents unwittingly sell him to a trafficker.

“We want to reach a large number of people to create awareness about child labour,” Brahmanand Siingh, director of “Jhalki” told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The film was inspired by the Indian campaigner against child trafficking and Nobel peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Siingh said on Tuesday.

Figures released by India’s National Crime Records Bureau last month showed that about 3,000 human trafficking cases were reported in 2017, a drop of about 60% from more than 8,000 recorded in the previous year.

Traffickers target people in rural villages – largely poor, women and children – luring them to cities with the promise of good jobs but then selling them into modern day slavery.

Picture Time, a startup that screens films in villages using inflatable, air-conditioned theatres with high quality sound, will take “Jhalki” to rural India and charge 50 rupees ($0.7) per ticket.

“The reach of Picture Time goes right down to interiors where there are no theatres. We can show the film, create awareness,” Siingh said.

Campaigners at Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation will also screen the film in villages where they work to alert residents to traffickers targeting their area.

India’s multiple film industries churn out thousands of films every year, yet it has the lowest number of cinema screens per capita in the world after China, the United States and Britain, consultancy KPMG said in a report this year.

Some of the poorer states of India such as Chattisgarh, Bihar and Jharkhand, record the highest numbers of children trafficked for sex or work but have few cinema theatres.

Sushil Chaudhary, Picture Time’s founder, said they screened “Padman”, a film on menstrual hygiene, and “Toilet – A Love Story” about open defecation, in villages in the last couple of years.

“’Jhalki’ is an important film. It should go places,” Chaudhary said.

This news has been read 6506 times!