Corona cinephilia : a qualitative audience study on cinephile places, spaces and the impact of COVID-19 on urban cinephilia in the city of Ghent, Belgium

Abstract

In 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Belgium was among the world’s worst-affected countries in terms of the number of deaths per capita. As a result, a national lockdown was imposed, prohibiting any kinds of social activities as a means to prevent a further spread of the virus. One of the cultural industries most deeply affected by this restriction was cinema. This essay aims to obtain a better understanding of the ways COVID-19 has impacted cinemagoing and the film experiences of young urban cinephiles, particularly reflecting on the shifts in the cinephile’s experiences of the places where they consume movies. This contribution is based on a mixed-method approach, consisting of semi-structured online interviews with cinephiles aged twenty-one to thirty in the city of Ghent, Belgium. We start off by discussing three different perspectives on cinephilia’s evolution within the academic cinephilia debates. Subsequently, we look into how our cinephile respondents’ film and cinema experiences have been impacted by COVID-19 safety measures, focusing on ‘quarantine’ film consumption habits and experiences in a domestic and online environment. Lastly, we also discuss new forms of cinephilia and technology, community building and experiences