Title: Beyond the Multiplex: Contemporary Trends in Film Exhibition in Dublin
Abstract: The last few years have seen the proliferation of small, specialised cinema events in Dublin that can be understood as a counterpoint and community-based response to hegemonic patterns of cinema exhibitionism an era of global consumerism. Cinema attendance in Ireland has remained one of the highest per capita, even with reductions brought on by the recession (Gordon 2011). Nevertheless how and where we view films has changed significantly. As Kevin and Emer Rockett's recent history of film exhibition attests (Rockett and Rockett 2011: 366-454), cinema attendance was a vital part of community and social life for the Irish during the twentieth century, with a cinema (or 'picture house') found in most local areas as well as metropolitan centres. Today, however, most films on the big screen are seen at the multiplex; a generic consumer experience encompassing an 'event' movie, retail 'opportunities' and fast food at interchangeable large suburban complexes (ibid:196-197). Social interaction is limited and social distance is maintained in the multiplex design, layout and norms (Hubbard 2003:262) as well as through the requirement for traveling to and from the cinema in the private car. Notwithstanding healthy cinema attendance in Ireland, the home is now the place where most films are watched, with an array of technologies facilitating home viewing, from digital home theatres to internet streaming and piracy (Klinger 2007:77, Allen 2011:42-44). Following international patterns and increased affluence, home viewing has greatly increased in Ireland the past decade, with an exponential rise in the ownership of home cinema technology (Central Statistics Office 2012:34), DVD rentals and purchases (International Video Federation 2011:13-14) and video on demand (VOD) subscriptions (Wreckler 2013).This switch to home viewing consolidates cinema as a dominant consumer culture (Klinger 2006: 38, 47, 55) and can also be found to detach cinema from its earlier social and communal function. While Dublin offers a variety of multiplexes (1) and provides a limited but generally strong arthouse cinema scene, (2) and although there has been a substantial rise in home viewing, there would appear to be a demand for a more diverse cinema culture in Ireland's cosmopolitan capital. Since 2005 there has been a notable increase in small, alternative and minority film festivals, such as the Polish film festival, Kinopolis (2005-) and the Temple Bar Film Festival (2006-2007) that focused on recent Irish cinema. Minicinefest (2006 to 2008), Pintsize Film Festival (2007) and Eat My Shorts (2010-) have each provided outlets for short films and there has been an annual Sunday Times Outdoor Cinema Festival since 2007. The Indian Film Festival of Ireland and Underground Cinema Film Festival both launched in 2010, the Blackrock Animation Film Festival in 2011 and the Fingal Film Festival, the Freshly Squeezed International Student Short Film Festival and the UCD Science Film Festival launched in 2012, to name just some of the many small festivals that have come to form part of the annual cinema calendar in Dublin. It is notable that these events don't all happen within a cinema setting: many take place in hotels, bars, clubs, galleries and warehouse spaces; a phenomenon facilitated by digital technologies and the affordability of projection equipment. These factors may also account for the spread of small film clubs and various other film events that seem to create a more personalised, social and heterogeneous cinema experience than that available at the multiplex. Indeed, a 2012 'chicklit' novel by Irish writer Brian Finnegan The Forced Redundancy Film Club taps into this zeitgeist and its title suggests the recession as a contributory factor in the popularity of such gatherings. (3) The book's main theme, that of a group of employees who seek to remain in contact after being made redundant, also speaks to the community-building potential of this trend against the backdrop of classic movies. …
Publication Year: 2013
Publication Date: 2013-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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