Cinema, watching and audience in Gaziantep (1923 - 1980)

Abstract

As a public sphere which provides individuals with opportunity for entertainment and socialisation, cinema has gained an important place in cultural life of countries/societies and formation of city identity from past to present through watched films, cinema halls, 'going to the cinema' experience, and watching culture formed by these elements. Cinema, which enters Ottoman territories shortly after its invention, becomes a public sphere shared by men and women due to modernist reforms performed after the proclamation of the republic. Turkish films and foreign films attract attention from cinemagoers within this period, and cinema becomes an important cultural element in social sphere by becoming widespread in the metropolis and country due to accelaration of political, economical, technical infrastructural developments. Gaziantep is one of the cities that witness this process living its heyday especially between 1960 and 1975. In this study, cinema phenomenon in Gaziantep between 1923 and 1980 is covered with regard to its interaction with socio-cultural domain, public interest to the films, cinema halls and watching environment of the period. In this context, by interviewing people related to mentioned subjects and relying on other very few visual-written resources; it can be said that cinema fact in Gaziantep plays a distinctive role over the city life and cultural domain, and the cinemagoer meets different worlds by crossing cultural/physical/geographical borders through the films and cinema experiences. Plus, it is important in terms of the relationship between Gaziantep and cinema that within this period the archetype of cinamathque in Turkey shows up there.