tailieunhanh - “And I felt quite posh!” Art-house cinema and the absent audience – the exclusions of choice

The aim of the descriptive approach is to place a large number of films into a small set of groups based on common characteristics such as theme or visual style. This means concentrating on the formal and stylistic qualities of films. Try the following introductory exercise to familiarise yourself with this approach: The functional approach to genre, focuses instead on the role genre plays in society itself. The Functional approach examines film and the viewing of films as a shared, social ritual, with different audiences sharing common expectations and experiences. In relation to genre in particular, try the following. | Volume 8 Issue 2 November 2011 Participations Journal of Audience Reception Studies And I felt quite posh Art-house cinema and the absent audience - the exclusions of choice Dr Ailsa Hollinshead Edinburgh Napier University UK Abstract This paper is based on a small qualitative research project in Scotland that explored why some film viewers chose not to watch art-house films or attend art-house cinemas alternatively known as cultural cinema . The aim of this pilot project was to talk to film viewers in areas of deprivation about their film viewing choices and practices with a view to gaining some insights into the ways in which those choices and practices could be seen as related to Bourdieu s concepts of cultural and symbolic capital. There were two reasons for choosing an area of deprivation. Firstly there were practical implications for local art-house cinemas which had no clear understanding of this absent audience and at a wider level it will have practical implications for national policy makers. Secondly there was my own interest in extending previous research I had conducted into the impact of cultural practices and their relationship to social exclusion. Initial findings from the study suggest that there is a link amongst cultural and symbolic capital and economic and educational deprivation. Whilst there are some obvious findings related to economic constraints there are less obvious indications that symbolic capital and the related concept of symbolic violence impact upon the choices that interviewees made. Unpacking some of these issues leads to the conclusions that with more considered marketing there is a distinct possibility of creating an audience that is no longer as absent whilst recognising that inequalities in access to cultural capital cannot be resolved easily reinforcing Bourdieu s ideas about the complex relationship amongst different forms of capital. Keywords art-house cinema audiences Bourdieu cultural capital cultural policy social .