Anne Forrester- Weekly Post-Bootleg Dvds in Peru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNrGA6UqXS4   <--------   real link incase the video doesn't play.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/perus-dvd-pirates-are-its-top-culture-dealers <---------- link to motherboard.vice article

I was shown this video and article over the summer while I was in Peru and like the article states, peru has some of the slowest internet speeds in the world so I was unable to watch the video until recently. I saw this prevalence of bootleg dvds throughout my time there; my friend had over 300 pirated dvds that she bought in Lima and brought back to her home in a city 8hrs away in the mountains. Although these dvds are illegal and there is a growing stigma around this market, I can't help but argue that they are the most important if not only source of international entertainment media that young peruvians consume. American hollywood movies were obviously popular, but so were many mainstream korean and japanese film; all of which are dubbed in spanish and titled in more relevant spanish names. With things like youtube and netflix hard to stream bc of slow internet, teenagers relied on USBs with music files and dvds.  It was fascinating to me to realize that many of the peruvian teenagers I met actually LOVED bands like Nickleback and Lincoln park, which I would hesitate to say are laughed at today in the US, but were superstars there. In a society whose education puts little stress on fostering the arts and social sciences, Peru's bootleg dvd markets provide a window into parts of the world that many peruvians would never know existed.