A Digital Toolkit to Detect Cinema Audiences of the Silent Era: Scalable Perspectives on Film Exhibition and Consumption in Amsterdam Neighbourhoods (1907-1928)

Vincent Baptist*, Julia Noordegraaf, Thunnis Van Oort

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

3 Citations (Scopus)
14 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

In this article, we demonstrate and argue that one way to acquire a better sense of cinemagoing in the silent film era is to investigate the relations between cinema locations, the socio-economic and demographic profile of their surroundings, and film programming. Driven by the centrality of space as one of the defining traits of new cinema history, we operationalise this inquiry through a data-driven toolkit of interconnected scalable approaches, in order to establish a multilayered contextualisation of Amsterdam’s early cinema landscape. We analyse Amsterdam’s historical cinema market both on the meso level of the city’s overall surroundings and on the micro level of two neighbouring film venues within a specific urban district. By switching between different levels of scale to analyse the cinemas’ programming profiles, we highlight the venues’ positioning within the socio-spatial structure of the city and their neighbourhood community in particular. In the future, the multifaceted analytical exploration enabled by our digital toolkit can be further enhanced by an increased availability of more fine-grained archival and contextual data.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)252-273
Number of pages22
JournalStudies in European Cinema
Volume18
Issue number3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 11 Jul 2021

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Our case study centres on the city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, starting from 1907, when the country’s first permanent cinema venues were established, until the arrival of sound films around 1928. From the online database Cinema Context, containing extensive data on cinemas and screened films in the Netherlands from 1896 onwards, we have gathered information on the cinemas operating during this period, covering more than 9000 film screenings that took place in Amsterdam within this time span. Choosing Amsterdam as a case study has also allowed us to benefit from the collaborative research framework of the Amsterdam Time Machine (ATM) project funded by CLARIAH, the national infrastructure for digital humanities research in the Netherlands. Connected to the European Time Machine consortium, along with several other local Time Machine initiatives, the ATM project has brought together urban and social historians, linguists and media studies scholars to collect various datasets containing historical information on the city of Amsterdam, and subsequently link these resources to a shared GIS infrastructure.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Research programs

  • ESHCC HIS

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