Audiovisual and cinematographic production in an insular context: Constraints and assets, the case of the Caribbean archipelago of Guadeloupe

In the French outermost regions, the rise of the cultural and creative industries as a lever for economic development has attracted growing interest in recent years. In Guadeloupe, a political will to support the film industry by setting up its own funding mechanism has been implemented, with 6 million euros invested between 2015 and 2020. Recent studies (2019-2021) have shown that the French outermost regions, which are far from the French decision-making center and have a narrow market, face structural challenges aggravated by a deficit of national public support for local independent production. The lack of financial support is accompanied by a lack of statistical data and a lack of visibility of the culture and identity of the French outermost regions in national channels. The latter play a decisive role in financing French audiovisual and cinematographic production by pre-purchasing works. In 2016, all the unions and associations of the audiovisual and cinematographic industry in the French outermost regions made a strong demand to the national level for the application of common law in the French outermost regions. In this chronicle of an announced “audiovisual and cinematographic content war”, what would be the assets of the independent production of French outermost regions? A review of recent studies allows us to present here the functioning of the public aid system for audiovisual and cinematographic in France. We then analyze two obstacles among others that limit access to national financing for local production in the French outermost regions. Finally, we present the case of Guadeloupe which, despite structural and financial constraints, has been able to attract large international productions through a strategy based on the local public authority.