Gent Kinemastad
Researcher(s) (CIMS)
Supervisors (CIMS)
Funded by
BOF UGent
Presentation
This follow-up project is inspired by the New Cinema History perspective within film and media studies, whereby researchers concentrate upon the social embedding and the lived experiences of cinemagoing. Reworking the three phases, the project focuses upon the history film exhibition, programming and cinemagoing in Ghent and its suburbs (1896-2010) using a triangulation of methods. First a longitudinal database is constructed regarding film exhibition data about the city and its suburbs (such as owners, personnel, financial data and infrastructure) which is based on a combination of unique archival material found at the national and city archives and the different pillarized archives. This dataset is complemented with programming research done in local newspapers from the 1930s onwards with an additional focus on the movie palace Capitole. Finally the dataset and the programming information is countered with oral history accounts of moviegoing and everyday life in and about the city. As such the project takes into account the historical economic analyses of film exploitation, popularity and experience, and methods linked to sociology, the study of everyday life and social geography.