Studying Italian para-industry: The case of Boris

This article examines labour in Italian contemporary film and television production industries through the case studies of Boris-la serie/Boris-the series (2007–2010) and Boris-il film/Boris-the movie (2011). In doing so, it applies two often considered opposite theoretical approaches: media production studies and textual analysis. The structure of the article is threefold. In the first section, Italian and international research addressing audio-visual media labour is reviewed, and organized into six thematic categories. The second section introduces and discusses Caldwell’s key notions of para-industry, shadow academy and media text. These constitute the theoretical framework underpinning the content and stylistic analysis of the case studies. The third section presents the analysis according to the previously exposed six categories. Results show that Boris’ representation of audio-visual media labour is essentially research-consistent. Moreover, the analysis reveals an issue overlooked by the literature: the prominence of political ties for accessing and enduring in Italian audio-visual industries.