Affiliation:
1. the University of Stirling
Abstract
Film is not always the dominant element in the social situations it enters.
This chapter discusses instrumental forms of exhibition, which energize
the overlaps between the film’s discourse and the viewer’s world. The
screening space helps underline this proximity, and may offer opportunities
to shift the experience of reception into action. In the chapter, I
explain how ‘useful’ cinema expects active engagement from the audience,
encouraging discussion by activating the incompleteness of film.
Examples include ‘interrupted’ screenings, film discussions, and the use
of documentary film as a campaigning tool.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press