Cinema Culture in Warsaw (1895/6-1939): A transnational Perspective
Final Report Abstract
Over the last few years, research in the humanities and the social sciences has moved beyond the dominant framework of national culture to address issues of media culture in a transnational perspective. Aided by a cross-disciplinary spatial turn, issues of space and place have become the center of attention and contributed to the development of new perspectives and approaches to complex, site-specific phenomena in media history and media culture, replacing the latent idealism of the grand historical narrative of national culture. This interdisciplinary project is situated at the intersection of history and film studies and proposes to explore the heuristic potential of the new approach by studying the cinema culture in the multi-ethnic city of Warsaw between the emergence of this form of leisure at the turn of the 20th century and its destruction in the Second World War and the ravages of the Holocaust. The goal is to reconstruct and map the subject of enquiry. At the same time, the aim is to replace an older map, which was exclusively focused on Polish cinema and suggested by older approaches to film history and the history of the city. The focus lies on transnational networks between local cinema businesses and global players in the film industry, as well as on the cultural and linguistic diversity of the producers and consumers, among whom a significant number were Jewish. The attention shifts towards different political forces and common sociocultural and sociolinguistic norms, which affected this field of business and culture. The project targets a social and cultural history of the film business, of cinemas and cinema audiences in accordance with the constructivist study of nationalism and transnational historiography. Therefore, it takes the spatial perspective and proposes to combine the New Cinema History in film studies and the history of the city. The essential input comes also from Jewish Studies as well as the iconic turn in history. Spatial data will be categorized and mapped through the Geographical Information System (GIS). The intention is to reconstruct a topography of leisure by studying cinema programs, release and exhibition patterns, the structure of film companies and the exhibition business, as well as the function of cinemas as social spaces. The project seeks to close an important gap in cinema history and the cultural history of 20th-century Central Europe and make contributions to the New Cinema History and the history of the city. It also uncovers a mosaic stone in the complex and contradictory interlacing of Polish-Jewish relations.
Publications
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Żydowscy współtwórcy polskiej kinematografii w Warszawie 1895/6–1939/Jüdische Mitbegründer der polnischen Kinematographie in Warschau 1895/6-1939 (Żydowski Instytut Historyczny w Warszawie 14.03.2017)
Karina Pryt
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Außenkulturpolitik gegenüber Polen, 1918 bis 1939 (DPI und AA: Internationale Konferenz. Ein Jahrhundert deutsche Polenpolitik 1918-2018. Tradition – Zivilisationsbruch – Verständigung – Partnerschaft 15.-16.11.2018 in Berlin)
Karina Pryt
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Cinemas and Cinema Audiences in Warsaw 1908/11-1939 (Aberystwyth University: Researching Past Cinema Audiences: Archives, Memories and Methods 26.-28.03.2018 in Aberystwyth)
Karina Pryt
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Importierte Unterhaltung. Deutsche Filme in der Warschauer Kinokultur 1920–1939. (Universität Leipzig: [Transnationale] Produktionswelten der Massenkultur: Akteure, Formate und Genres 30.11-01.12.2018)
Karina Pryt
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The legendary Apollo: A case study of the cinema culture in the multi-ethnic metropolis of Warsaw between 1910 and 1939 (14th International Conference on Urban History: Urban Renewal and Resilience. Cities in Comparative Perspective 29.08-01.09.2018 in Rom)
Karina Pryt
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Cinema Audiences in Warsaw between 1908 and 1939 (DHI Warschau: Workshop. Methods of historical audience research 26.04.2019)
Karina Pryt
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W starym praskim kinie/ Im alten Kino des Stadtteils Praga (Muzeum Pragi w Warszawie 16.04.2019)
Karina Pryt
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Going to the movies in German-occupied territory in World War II: A comparative analysis of film screenings in Brussels, The Hague, Krakow, and Brno (1940-1944) (Amsterdam University: Movie Theatres in Wartime (WWII): Film Distribution and Exhibition During World War II online 19-20.11.2020)
Pryt, Karina; Dębski, Andrzej; van Oort, Thunnis; Pafort-Overduin, Clara; Porubcanska, Terezia; Skopal, Pavel & Winkel, Roel Vande
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Importierte Unterhaltung. Geschichte und Gesellschaft, 46(1), 122-154.
Pryt, Karina
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Mapping with Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) (TFM. Goethe Universität in Frankfurt am Main: Researching and Comparing Historical Cinema Cultures. Film Popularity and Mapping 17.01.2020)
Karina Pryt
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4. CINEMAS AND CINEMA AUDIENCES IN THE ‘THIRD SPACE’ IN WARSAW, 1908–1939. Researching Historical Screen Audiences, 63-85. Edinburgh University Press.
Pryt, Karina
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Coming back home to Warsaw. Pola Negri’s films and their popularity in an East European multicultural city in the 1920s (HoMER Annual Conference 25.-29.05.2021 online)
Karina Pryt
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Moderacja spotkania z autorką Urszulą Biel, promocja jej książki „Kultura filmowa prowincji górnośląskiej. Kina, właściciele, widzowie” oraz pokazu filmu „Higiena małżeńska” (Austria 1922) (Kino Muranów w Warszawie 12.06.2021)
Karina Pryt
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Ufa in Polen 1918-1939, in: Kasten, Jürgen; Lang, Frederik; Stiasny, Philipp (Hgg.), Ufa international. Ein deutscher Filmkonzern mit globalen Ambitionen, München 2021, 93–107. ISBN 978-3-86916-873-9
Pryt, Karina
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Film/Cinema (East Central Europe) (Version 1.1), in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universität Berlin
Pryt, Karina
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Kultura filmowa w Warszawie 1895/6-1939 w perspektywie ponadnarodowej i genderowej (Żydowski Universytet Otwarty w Warszawie: Online Semestr Zimowy 2021/22: Męskość/kobiecość 26.01.2022)
Karina Pryt
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Polish-Soviet War in Film and Cinema: A New Perspective Based on the Films For You, O Poland (1920) and Miracle on the Vistula (1921). Acta Poloniae Historica, 124, 123-147.
Pryt, Karina
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Quo Vadis? in Warsaw in 1913: An Italian or Polish artwork on the silver screen? (HoMER Annual Conference 05.-08.07.2022 in Rom)
Karina Pryt
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The Cinema as a Social Space for Community Building in Warsaw (1907-1939): A Success Story in the Complex Polish-Jewish Interrelationship (Paris University: Community building at the cinema - Faire communauté(s) face à l’écran de cinéma 10.05.2022 online)
Karina Pryt
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Using Digital Tools to Locate Living and Working Areas of Domestic Producers and Circulation of their Films in 1910s Warsaw. Iluminace, 34(2), 9-28.
Pryt, Karina
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Wprowadzenie do wieczoru filmowego: Filmy czasu wojny w warszawskich kinach/Einführung in den Kinoabend: Kriegsfilme in Warschauer Kinos (PAN Berlin: Międzynarodowa Konferencja: Rok 1920 w Polsce i w Europie online 07.-09.10.2022)
Karina Pryt
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“Film Exhibition in Warsaw in 1913: A Bottom-up Three-Perspectival View of Early Cinema in the Multinational Russian Empire”. Apparatus. Film, Media and Digital Cultures of Central and Eastern Europe, no. 15 (December).
Karina Pryt
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Jewish Pioneers of the Polish Film Industry and the Trajectories of Their Films. An Empirical Study with QGIS Set in 1910s Warsaw (POLIN Museum: East Central Europe at the Crossroads: Jewish Transnational Networks and Identities 19-20 June 2023)
Karina Pryt
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Mapping cinemas in the Russian-governed Warsaw. Studia Geohistorica, 10, 138-151.
Pryt, Karina
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Mordechaj Abramowicz Towbin, in: Polski Słownik Bibliograficzny (54), Kraków 2023
Pryt, Karina
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Working on marginalised cinema audiences with the Jewish historical press website: illustrated on the quest for Jewish patrons of the palace venue in 1920s Warsaw. Early Popular Visual Culture, 21(2), 284-293.
Pryt, Karina
