CCAJ as cinephiliac pedagogy: cultural reproduction and renewal through watching and making film

This article explores Le cinéma, cent ans de jeunesse (CCAJ) as a cinephiliac film education programme, situated in between conceptions of mainstream film culture and formal schooling. It uses a broadly Bourdieusian analytical frame to understand CCAJ as a mode of cultural reproduction, particularly in its deployment of rules, routines and rituals, in its distinctive pedagogy, and in the function of its founder and artistic patron, Alain Bergala. The article also uses some of the thinking of Gilles Deleuze to understand the dynamics behind CCAJ’s mode of engagement with cinema, in particular its pedagogy. At its heart, the article finds in CCAJ a set of productive contradictions that enable it to continue and thrive as a unique approach to cinema culture.