Live Cinema: Cultures, Economies, Aesthetics

In recent years, there has been a growing trend toward the creation of a cinema that escapes beyond the boundaries of the auditorium whereby film-screenings are augmented by synchronous live performance, site-specific locations, technological intervention, social media engagement, and all manner of simultaneous interactive moments including singing, dancing, eating, drinking and smelling. Such instances belong to the emergent area of ‘Live’ or ‘experiential’ cinema, and include all events inspired by the moving image with additional theatrical, sensorial, musical, spoken word or dance experiences. Drawing together, for the first time, recent work into the field, Live Cinema provides new insights and conceptualisations into the Spaces, Bodies, Technologies, Temporalities & Textualities of live cinema experiences. Including work into outdoor screenings, drive-ins, sing-a-longs, sensory augmentations, fully immersive experiences and event-led distribution, the contributions span the independent to the mainstream, capturing the over-arching current state-of-the-field, as well as offering unique and in-depth insights into the various manifestations of live cinema economies and cultures.