The Social Geography of ‘Going Out’: Teenagers and Community Cinema in Rural Australia

Cinemas provide isolated rural teens with important connections to wider national and global cultural landscapes. While films are now readily accessible across a range of different formats and devices, the act of going to the movies offers young people ‘something to do’ in places where there are typically few alternatives. What has been less prominent in policy and critical discourses, but is nonetheless equally significant, is the role of cinema in providing young people with a legitimate, public place to gather and interact. This chapter examines how the cultural and social spaces created by rural cinemas can be crucial to fostering the development of positive youth identities and attachment to place.