이 글은 한국전쟁 이후 1960년대 한국영화 중흥의 시기까지 군 단위 이 하 비도시 지방에서의 순회 영화 상영이 국민국가 형성과 한국영화 산업 발 전과 맺는 상관성, 그리고 순회 영화 관람 행위가 지역에서의 의미와 관객 의 정체성 형성에 미친 영향을 밝힌 것이다. 구체적으로 살핀 내용은 다음 과 같다. 첫째, 1950년대 이후 한국사회 극장의 등장 추이와 지역 간 편차 등 순회 영화 상영이 등장하게 된 한국영화 산업의 배경이다. 둘째, 한국사 회 순회 영화 상영 역사에 대한 개괄과, 전후 반공과 냉전의 근대화 과정이 순회 영화 상영의 등장 배경으로 작용한 것을 밝히고 있다. 셋째, 순회 영화 상영의 주도 세력, 규모 그리고 활동 범위 등 구체적인 내용을 전라남북도 의 대표적 흥행 종사자들의 구술을 통해 파악하고 있다. 마지막으로, 비도 시 지방 관객의 영화 관람 경험과 순회 방식이 지역 공동체의 정체성 형성 과 근대화 과정에 부여한 의미를 다루고 있다. 전후 흥행을 위한 순회 영화 상영은 몇몇의 개인이나 극장 모두 이윤의 확장을 위해 시작되었는데, 그것은 비도시 지역에서의 영화의 수요와 흥행 이 도시 극장에서의 그것 못지않게 중요한 비중을 차지하고 있었음을 의미 한다. 정치사회적 측면에서 보아, 전후 순회 영화 상영은 주로 당시 반공의 기치 아래 세력을 확장한 경찰 기구의 지지와 후원을 통해 이루어졌다. 특 히, 지방 문화원이 실시한 계몽 목적의 순회 영화 상영은 1960년대 박정희 정권의 개발과 발전 담론에 농촌 지역민을 동원한 기제로 작동했다. 영화 산업적 측면에서 보아, 1950년대 후반부터 시작된 지역별 필름 간접배급 시스템은 순회 영화 상영이 안정적이고 조직적으로 활동할 수 있는 기반을 마련했다. 순회 영화 상영은 읍면 단위 지역을 중심으로 활동하면서 지방 필름 배급사의 이윤도 확대시켰다. 영화문화사적 측면에서 보아, 비도시 지 방에서의 영화 관람은 도시 생활 문화의 대체 경험이자 근대 이전 사회가 억압했던 섹슈얼리티(sexuality)를 발현시키는 장(場)을 형성했다. 하지만 비정기적‘순회’를 통한 영화 관람은 비도시 지역의 사회 질서를 통합하고 관리하는‘축제’의 기능 역시 담당하는 양가적인 의미를 갖고 있었던 것으 로 나타났다.

This work examines the itinerant film exhibition practices that involved tour in small towns where movie theaters did not exist, focusing on the north and south Chula province. The itinerant film exhibition has not received much scholarly attention in the field of film studies, but it warrants an in-depth study to address issues such as what made the flourishing of the itinerant film exhibition during the period from the post-Korean War to the 1960s, what roles the traveling exhibition played in order to develop the South Korean film industry, and what cinema-going meant to the public in the rural areas during that time. To problematize the film exhibition practices in the rural areas is to resuscitate the voices and experiences of the outer regions and interweave them into history. The events and practices are therefore re-told, recorded and imagined in order to recover the cultural landscapes in rural areas that were as historical as the metropolitan cultural practice was. By the mid 1950s the number of theaters in the whole country reached slightly over one hundred, which were mostly located in the cities. Few rural audiences had the experience of viewing films in the theater, and the itinerant film shows was the 한국전쟁이후 1960년대 비도시 지역 순회 영화 상영 303 important means available to them. The rural areas in the north and south Chula provinces witnessed the renaissance of the itinerant of film exhibition from the mid 1950s to the 1960s. The characteristic feature of the itinerant film exhibition practices is that the practices during the period were intensely interwoven with the socio-political circumstances based on the anti- Communism and the Cold War followed by the Korean War. And the flourishing of the itinerant film exhibition in the rural areas depended on the conditions of film markets such as the indirect film distribution by regions formed in the late 1950s in South Korea. In relation to the audience-ship, it is worth noting the ambivalent attitudes of the rural audiences toward the experience of film viewing by the itinerant film exhibition. To them the experience of cinema-going was a substitute for urban life which compensated them for living in underdeveloped regions. The communal gathering at the temporary tent-theaters offered a social arena in which different ages, gender and class were treated as equals, challenging the established social orders and norms. By the same token, the physical gathering made an effect to strengthen the solidarity of their communal membership among the rural residents, while the rural residents awakened the disparity between city and country. In other words, filmviewers in the rural areas continuously negotiated two contending social positions: one as agents of cultural desiring and consumption, and the other as subjects that constantly faced cultural marginalization within the rhetoric of nation-building based on urban culture and the discourse of the‘ modernization.’

This work examines the itinerant film exhibition practices that involved tour in small towns where movie theaters did not exist, focusing on the north and south Chula province. The itinerant film exhibition has not received much scholarly attention in the field of film studies, but it warrants an in-depth study to address issues such as what made the flourishing of the itinerant film exhibition during the period from the post-Korean War to the 1960s, what roles the traveling exhibition played in order to develop the South Korean film industry, and what cinema-going meant to the public in the rural areas during that time. To problematize the film exhibition practices in the rural areas is to resuscitate the voices and experiences of the outer regions and interweave them into history. The events and practices are therefore re-told, recorded and imagined in order to recover the cultural landscapes in rural areas that were as historical as the metropolitan cultural practice was. By the mid 1950s the number of theaters in the whole country reached slightly over one hundred, which were mostly located in the cities. Few rural audiences had the experience of viewing films in the theater, and the itinerant film shows was the 한국전쟁이후 1960년대 비도시 지역 순회 영화 상영 303 important means available to them. The rural areas in the north and south Chula provinces witnessed the renaissance of the itinerant of film exhibition from the mid 1950s to the 1960s. The characteristic feature of the itinerant film exhibition practices is that the practices during the period were intensely interwoven with the socio-political circumstances based on the anti- Communism and the Cold War followed by the Korean War. And the flourishing of the itinerant film exhibition in the rural areas depended on the conditions of film markets such as the indirect film distribution by regions formed in the late 1950s in South Korea. In relation to the audience-ship, it is worth noting the ambivalent attitudes of the rural audiences toward the experience of film viewing by the itinerant film exhibition. To them the experience of cinema-going was a substitute for urban life which compensated them for living in underdeveloped regions. The communal gathering at the temporary tent-theaters offered a social arena in which different ages, gender and class were treated as equals, challenging the established social orders and norms. By the same token, the physical gathering made an effect to strengthen the solidarity of their communal membership among the rural residents, while the rural residents awakened the disparity between city and country. In other words, filmviewers in the rural areas continuously negotiated two contending social positions: one as agents of cultural desiring and consumption, and the other as subjects that constantly faced cultural marginalization within the rhetoric of nation-building based on urban culture and the discourse of the‘ modernization.’

itinerant film exhibition, Chula province, Korean War, indirect film distribution system, cinema-going experience.