Audiences as cultural intermediaries: a case study from Kyoto, Japan

Studies of cultural intermediaries have until recently tended to deal with cultural producers and productions; however, this relatively narrow focus does not account for the roles played by those outside these occupations in mediating cultural products. While a defining aspect of a cultural intermediary is the attempt to shape consumer tastes, it is becoming increasingly apparent that this activity has long been shifting beyond the producer class, or the ‘new petite bourgeoisie’ identified by Pierre Bourdieu in 1979. The shaping of cultural tastes in the broader consumer public is in fact a key goal of much audience and fan activity.

This chapter argues for organized audience groups and their representative actors as cultural intermediaries who can play important roles in the establishment, development, and globalization of film cultures in East Asia. In addition to the study of individual entrepreneurs, film directors, actors and actresses, printed or electronic media, nation-states, and film companies, paying attention to how audience groups organize themselves to intervene in cultural production can add nuance to our understanding of the operations of cultural intermediaries. In fact, organized audience groups often operate at the point where cultural producers and cultural consumers meet.

The organized audience groups whose activities are analysed in this chapter evolved from a film-viewing group called the Kyoto kiroku eiga o miru kai, or the Kyoto Society for Viewing Documentary Cinema, which formed in Japan in 1955. Rapidly organizing into a politicized production unit in order to develop their own documentary film project, this group attempted to shape the viewing tastes and political attitudes of Japanese film viewers. Their effort extended overseas, as the finished film, Nishijin, was screened at the Venice film festival in 1961 and has been shown at a number of international film festivals since. In analysing the activities of this group and its successors, this chapter demonstrates that the study of the organized audience can provide an opportunity to explore the grey areas and overlaps between cultural producers and consumers.