The travelling cinema is today 109 passionate exhibitors (Senate Information Report, May 24, 2023), supported by many volunteers in France and overseas. They organize film screenings in nearly 2,500 rural municipalities in all corners of the country. This is an exceptional but largely unknown offer, which also has a strong potential for development.
For Anne Lidove, President of the Association nationale du cinéma itinérant (ANCI), the latter constitutes a cultural offer of proximity full of future. Investing to implement new channels and reach more communities is, in his view, the challenge that is facing us today.
Let us judge: not only the demand in the rural territories does not weaken, but also the arrival of many «rurbains» in the countryside brings an additional dynamism at all levels: the commitment (professional and volunteer), the need for equipment on site, a connected lifestyle in harmony with the ecological transition... The cultural exception also lives in the countryside! Interview.
What happens during a film session in a rural town?
Upstream, it is first the organization of a tour. Each traveling cinema operator defines with its partners a «circuit». On the day of a session, the projectionist brings all his cinema equipment in a truck – the equipment is indeed “all digital” – on site, to set up the session and ensure the projection.
At the same time, the public has been informed through various means (notably on the Internet where the sessions are now published, thanks to the support of the CNC, the National Centre for Motion Picture Cinematography). If he is old enough to enjoy it, he has used his culture pass.
«Nearly two thirds of the circuits are classified art and test»
Sometimes the cinema is only there once a month. So it’s an event. Everything is perfectly organized by employees and volunteers. Often the room is full and the welcome is always warm. Evening sessions, followed by lively film debates, and even sometimes the presence of the director (always very happy to meet this audience). It should be noted that nearly two thirds of the circuits are classified art and test. And around the session, in partnership with the municipality, young people take advantage of the image education devices that we relay for them.
It’s really heartwarming for all these enthusiasts, professionals and volunteers, and for the directors, to see that the enormous work they do is so appreciated by this audience. The demand is strong and does not weaken!
How would you describe this travelling cinema audience?
He lives, of course, in the countryside. This is a local audience that rightly does not want discount programming. In recent years, the «rurbains» have been part of this audience. These are younger people, families with children who have recently left the cities. They have been used to enjoying a quality cultural offer. Often, they are the driving forces behind the creation of activity. They contribute to enriching the proposals of itinerant cinema, in municipalities at the end of the territory, where the cultural offer is rare, if not sometimes a very small media library corner…!
In these conditions, is itinerant cinema a cultural offer of the future?
I believe very much in his future, because with financial support he will not only strengthen his teams, but also develop new circuits. I also believe in its future because it is perfectly virtuous in terms of ecological transition: we avoid people having to travel miles to go to the cinema in the city. And finally I believe in its future because it is an ideal vector, simple and cheap, of the progression of the cultural offer in the most remote territories.
To allow this almost natural development, given the demand of the rural public, it will simply be necessary to help the municipalities to renovate their places of reception. It will also be very important to help operators hire new, young, dynamic people connected to social networks, to renew proposals, refine communication, feed mediation, promote image education.
Today, volunteers and professionals hold this world of traveling cinema at arm’s length, with very few resources, and they have the feeling of being continually overwhelmed by requests. This art, which everyone applauds and which only has to program itself to make full room, is made for roaming. And as in the time of the Lumière brothers, he must, as a pioneer, bring to the forefront the best of the cultural offer.
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