Meetings with the Polish Cinema: An Outline of a Sociological Study into Traveling Cinema Based on the ‘Light-Sensitive Poland’ Project

Abstract

The presented study aims to describe the outdoor movie project called ‘Light-Sensitive Poland’ [Pol. ‘Polska Światłoczuła’] in two perspectives – functional and interactive. During the qualitative field research, the author tried to find out what motivations drive the different sides of the project. The sociological study is based on scientific and statistical sources as well as on the material collected in the period 2012–2014 during the six touring cinema routes in Poland within the ‘Light-Sensitive Poland’ project. The specific objective is to attempt to include the author’s own sociological observations made during the fieldwork in the broader context of the traveling cinema phenomenon. The collected materials provided an opportunity to sketch the socio-cultural atmosphere of meetings between the audience and the works and their creators, in particular the expectations and motivation of both the creators and recipients. The article refers to the author’s own ordinary and participatory observations (both open and hidden). The article used 50 ordinary observations from the screening and from the meetings with the audience (conversations with the audience after the screening and about 100 short recorded conversations with the audience about the movie impressions and motivation to participate in the screening), as well as the insider experience from several dozen days in touring cinemas. The research is not representative of the overall audience of the screenings during the six tours. The author does not discuss the results of the research on the reception of contemporary Polish movies (discussion after screenings), but, rather, focuses on the institutional and interactive approach to mobile cinema.