"Serious Leisure": Film Festivals As Techno-Audiovisual Capital Author: Rosario Radakovich

Film festivals are considered as par of a “serious leisure” for the audiences. Most of them are considered as a “distinct” cultural activity, also an specific “techno-audiovisual” or “techno-cultural” capital (O’Keefe: 2009). Film festivals give audience the opportunity to be part of an specialized knowledge, a creative and innovative environment –with film-makers, cultural journalists, etc-, be included in premieres, and be part of the atmosphere of contemporary global culture. (Stinger, 2001).

As a result, audiences expect festivals provide a certain “quality guarantee” in order to show to the friends and family the value of this prestigious activity. According to De Valck (2006) festival audiences use the experience as evidence of cultural capital in conversations between friends and family. In this context, what are the forms of “serious leisure” associated to audiovisual cultural capital?  

This paper will analyze the case of the International Film Festival in Montevideo organized by Cinemateca Uruguaya, in order to explore the consumption of film festivals as a “serious leisure” in Uruguay. The methodology includes personal interviews and focus group study with film festival “selected” audiences. The results are part of a research about uruguayan audience cinema, developed in the Information and Communication Development Program in the Universidad de la República (PRODIC UDELAR), with an interdisciplinary research team between 2013 - 2015.