The Enlightened City
Film exhibition and film consumption in Flanders (1895-2010)
ABOUT
The Enlightened City research project focused upon the history of cinema cultures in the northern part of Belgium, Flanders, and in the capital of Brussels (1896-2010). Inspired by theories on the interrelationship between cinema, cities and modernity, The Enlightened City project delved into places, film programmes and cinemagoing experiences by applying a triangulation of methods and approaches (archival work, systematic databases and mapping of film exhibition places; programming analysis; and oral history). The project also produced in-depth case studies on historical cinema culture in particular cities (e.g. Antwerp, Ghent, Mechelen), areas (rural cinemagoing), and the interrelationship between ideology, religion and cinema (e.g. Catholics and cinema).
FUNDING
The Enlightened City (official title: Screen culture between ideology, economics and experience: A study on the social role of film exhibition and film consumption in Flanders (1895-2004) in interaction with modernity and urbanization), was funded by FWO-Vlaanderen (Flemish research fund), 2005-2008.
TEAM / CONTACT
- Philippe Meers website
- Daniel Biltereyst website
- Marnix Beyen website
- Kathleen Lotze website
- Lies Van de Vijver website
LINKS TO PROJECT
- The Enlightened City project on the HoMER platform
- The Enlightened City project on the CIMS research centre’s website
- D. Biltereyst & Ph. Meers (eds.) (2007) De Verlichte Stad. Een geschiedenis van bioscopen, filmvertoningen en filmcultuur in Vlaanderen. Leuven: Lannoo Campus.
- Biltereyst, D. (2007) De disciplinering van een medium. Filmvertoningen tijdens het Interbellum, pp. 45-61 in D. Biltereyst & Ph. Meers (eds.) De Verlichte Stad. Een geschiedenis van bioscopen, filmvertoningen en filmcultuur in Vlaanderen. Leuven: LannooCampus.
- Biltereyst, D. (2007) De kruistocht tegen de slechte cinema. De Katholieke Filmactie en bioscopen, pp. 143-161 in D. Biltereyst & Ph. Meers (eds.) De Verlichte Stad. Een geschiedenis van bioscopen, filmvertoningen en filmcultuur in Vlaanderen. Leuven: Lannoo Campus.
- Biltereyst, D. & Ph. Meers (2007) Bioscopen, filmcultuur en publiek: Een inleiding, pp. 11-19 in D. Biltereyst & Ph. Meers (eds.) De Verlichte Stad. Een geschiedenis van bioscopen, filmvertoningen en filmcultuur in Vlaanderen. Leuven, Lannoo Campus.
- Biltereyst, D. (2007), The Roman Catholic Church and Film Exhibition in Belgium, 1926-1940, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, 27(2): 193-214.
- Biltereyst, D. (2007) ‘God bescherme Amerika.’ Over de disciplinering van film in Vlaanderen in de jaren vijftig, pp. 139-156 in Kevin Absillis & Katrien Jacobs (eds.) Van Hugo Claus tot hoelahoep. Vlaanderen in beweging. 1950-1960. Antwerpen, Apeldoorn: Garant.
- Biltereyst, D., Meers, Ph., Van de Vijver, L. & Willems, G. (2007) Bioscopen, moderniteit en filmbeleving. Deel 1: Op zoek naar het erfgoed van bioscopen in landelijke en minder verstedelijkte gebieden in Vlaanderen, Volkskunde, 108(2): 105-124. (A1)
- Willems, G., Van de Vijver, L., Meers, Ph. & Biltereyst, D. (2007) Bioscopen, moderniteit en filmbeleving. Deel 2: Biopscoopbeleving en filmcultuur in landelijke en minder verstedelijkte gebieden in Vlaanderen (1925-1965), Volkskunde, 108(3): 193-213.
- Meers, Ph., Biltereyst, D. & Van de Vijver, L. (2008) Lived experiences of the ‘Enlightened City’ (1925-1975). A large scale oral history project on cinema-going in Flanders (Belgium), Iluminace. Journal of Film theory, history and aesthetics, 20(1): 208-214.
- Meers, Ph., Biltereyst, D. & Van de Vijver, L. (2010), Memories, Movies, and Cinema-Going: An Oral History Project on Film Culture in Flanders (Belgium), pp. 319 – 337 in I. Schenk, M. Tröhler and Y. Zimmerman (eds.), Film – Kino – Zuschauer: Filmrezeption / Film – Cinema – Spectator: Film Reception. Marburg: Schüren.
- Meers, Ph., Biltereyst, D. & Van de Vijver, L. (2010) Metropolitan vs rural cinemagoing in Flanders, 1925-1975, Screen, 51(3): 272-280.
- Meers, Ph., Biltereyst, D. & Van de Vijver, L. (2010), Memories, Movies, and Cinema-Going: An Oral History Project on Film Culture in Flanders (Belgium), pp. 319 – 337 in I. Schenk, M. Tröhler and Y. Zimmerman (eds.), Film – Kino – Zuschauer: Filmrezeption / Film – Cinema – Spectator: Film Reception. Marburg: Schüren.
- Biltereyst, D., Meers, Ph. & Van de Vijver, L. (2011) Social Class, Experiences of Distinctions and Cinema in Postwar Ghent, pp. 101-124 in: R. Maltby, D. Biltereyst & Ph. Meers (eds.) Explorations in New Cinema History: Approaches and Case Studies. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell.
- Biltereyst, D. Lotze, K. & Meers, Ph. (2012) Triangulation in Historical Audience Research: Reflections and Experiences from a Multi-Methodological Research Project on cinema audiences in Flanders, Participations: Journal of Audience & Reception Studies, 9(2): 690-715.
- Biltereyst, D., Meers, Ph., Lotze, K. & Van de Vijver, L. (2012) Negotiating cinema’s modernity: Strategies of control and audience experiences of cinema in Belgium, 1930s-1960s, pp. 186-201 in D. Biltereyst, Ph. Meers & R. Maltby (eds.) Cinema, Audiences and Modernity: New Perspectives on European Cinema History. London: Routledge.
- Meers, Ph. & Biltereyst, D. (2013) La Città Illuminata come “nuova storia del cinema”, pp. 305-313 in E. De Blasio & D. Vigano (eds.), I Film Studies, Rome: Carocci Editore.
- Meers, Ph. & Biltereyst, D. (2013), Cinema culture in Flanders and Brussels in the 20th century. From picture palace to the multiplex, pp. 214-17 in Marcelline Block and Jeremi Szaniawski (eds.), Directory of World Cinema: Belgium, Bristol: Intellect Books/Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Biltereyst, D. & Meers, Ph. (2014) Mapping film exhibition in Flanders (1920-1990). A diachronic analysis of cinema culture combined with demographic and geographic data, pp. 80-105 in: Hallam J. & Roberts L, (eds) New Spatial Methodologies in Cinema and the Moving Image. Indiana: Indiana University Press.
- Biltereyst, D. (2015), “I think Catholics didn’t go to the cinema”: Catholic film exhibition strategies and cinema-going experiences in Belgium, 1930s-1960s, pp. 255-271 in Biltereyst, D. & Treveri-Gennari, D. (eds.) Moralizing Cinema: Film, Catholicism, and Power. New York: Routledge.
- Biltereyst, D. & L. Van de Vijver (2016) Cinema in the ‘fog city’. Film exhibition and social geography in Flanders, p.223-236 in J. Thissen & C. Zimmerman (Eds.) Cinema Beyond the City: Filmgoing in Small-Towns and Rural Europe. London: British Film Institute.