Download or read book Attics, Art Houses, and Backyards written by Cole Austin Wilder and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since their rise in America in the mid-20th century, independent movie theaters have served as important sites of alternative film exhibition in an industry so often dominated by a select group of entities. As objects of study, however, they have largely stood as venues that present upscale experiences and films for similarly positioned audiences, an attitude that has in many ways remained to the present day. Scholars such as Barbara Wilinsky and Douglas Gomery, particularly, have noted the ways in which art house theaters have perpetuated notions of high class culture compared to mainstream movie palaces and megaplexes. In the present moment, art houses have largely shifted to presenting themselves as integral parts of their cities’ film communities. This thesis seeks to take up independent film exhibitors in Austin, Texas, namely Austin Film Society and Hyperreal Film Club, an art house theater and microcinema, respectively, as case studies in order to ask how these different kinds of venues define and create local filmgoing communities in different ways. For AFS in particular, this thesis looks at their role both presently and historically, as they have been the most influential force in shaping Austin’s film community since the 1980s. In the case of Hyperreal Film Club, I aim to show how they bring a different attitude towards exhibition that seeks to move beyond models of engagement established by art houses more generally. This is all done by examining internal and public documents from these groups, programming schedules and general programming, and interviews with various individuals involved with each of these groups with the hope of better understanding not only the priorities of these kinds of exhibitors in regard to these communities, but how this affects who is or is not envisioned within them. In doing so, this thesis brings to light not only the ways in which dominant indie institutions, in some ways, perpetuate historic industrial trends of appealing to affluent audiences and how new players are attempting to address such trends, but also how these different groups envision their roles in their respective local communities in a post-COVID-19 entertainment landscape