This workshop aims at revisiting the history of film importers/exporters and distributors throughout the 20th century by examining the social inscription of their trade. Moguls, go-betweens and/or smugglers, film traders were main actors in determining the value of films, building film markets, bringing out audiences by giving them (or not) access to the films. Yet, the history of cinema has long ignored the figure of the distributor, too bland to obscure the ethereal figure of the author, too close to the limelight to interest those, less numerous, researching “those wonderful people out there in the dark,” the audience. This workshop seeks to reconstruct the diversity of networks these businessmen/women used to maintain, how they positioned themselves in relation to their peers, remembering that many distributors also acted as exhibitors and producers.