Aydın Çam & İlke Şanlıer Yüksel

Abstract

Based on the New Cinema History approach, this article focuses on the cinemagoing experiences in the Taurus highland villages from 1960–1980 in Turkey. No previous study has investigated cinemagoing experience in rural Turkey. We explore who participated in the screenings and what the experiences of audience members were; in which places (fixed or ambulant) and under what circumstances the film screenings took place; who the exhibitors were; and how the procurement, distribution and exhibition mechanisms worked. We employ an ethnographic design and collect testimonies through oral history with villagers as well as travelling exhibitors and cinema operators. Our findings challenge a series of antiquated arguments on Turkish cinema history by reflecting on the grounded daily experiences in an often-ignored locality. These findings include issues such as cinema exhibition operating independently from the city, the mobility and temporality of cinemagoing experience, performative audience, and open cinema spaces.

Çam, A. & Şanlıer Yüksel, İ. (2020). Exhibitor’s Cut: Travelling Cinema and Experiences of Cinemagoing in Taurus Highland Villages During 1960–1980. TMG Journal for Media History, 23(1–2), 1–37.

Aydın Çam

Çam, A. (2020). İçerisi – Dışarısı: COVID-19 Pandemisi Günlerinde Adana’da Sinema Deneyimleri. S. Dinç, E. Turgut, & İ. Olgun (Ed.), Pandemi; Ütopya ile Distopya Ara Kesitinde mi, Yoksa Heterotopyanın Bizatihi İçinde mi? içinde (ss. 101–108). Spektrum Tasarım Rehberleri.

Aydın Çam & İlke Şanlıer Yüksel

Çam, A., & Şanlıer Yüksel, İ. (2020). Seyir ve Seyirci Çalışmalarında Yöntem Sorunu – Adana Şehir Merkezi ve Toros Yayla Köylerinden Yansıyanlar. A. Özsoy (Ed.), Sinema, Seyir ve Seyirci: Türkiye’de 200 Sonrası Değişen Seyir Kültürü ve Yeni Seyir Deneyimleri içinde (ss. 143–165). Literatürk Akademia Yayınları.

Aydın Çam & İlke Şanlıer Yüksel

Çam, A., & Şanlıer Yüksel, İ. (2020). Yeni/Yerel Sinema Tarihi Çalışmaları: Adana ve Çukurova Bölgesi Araştırmaları. Çukurova Üniversitesi Türkoloji Araştırmaları Merkezi Kültür Evi Konuşmaları Dergisi, 3, 54–65.

Aydın Çam & İlke Şanlıer Yüksel

Çam, A., & Şanlıer Yüksel, İ. (2020). Yeni/Yerel Sinema Tarihi Çalışmaları: Adana ve Çukurova Bölgesi Araştırmaları. Çukurova Üniversitesi Türkoloji Araştırmaları Merkezi Kültür Evi Konuşmaları Dergisi, 3, 54–65.

Olgu Yiğit

As a structural element of cinema narration, space has always been a part of the film. On the other hand, the film and cinema studies have been the subject of interdisciplinary studies because of its layered and holistic structure. The cinematic geographies tend to use cartography, which has a novel method in the context of cinematic narration. That is because the director does not only use cinematic cityscapes and cinematic landscapes as a background but as the narration itself. This study aims to look at what cinematic geographies are and how its methodology can be applied to a specific director, namely Yılmaz Güney, and to an understanding of locality.

In this study, a Yılmaz Güney’s film, Seyyit Han: Toprağın Gelini (Seyyit Han: Bride of The Earth, 1968), shoot in Adana are mapped by the cartographic method and then are analysed contextually. Findings will be discussed through a triangulation of data collected from oral history and cartographic methods. In the conclusion part, cinematic Adana in the frame of Güney’s the movie, and present physical Adana as a form of memory will be evaluated by the contextual film analysis method.

Yiğit, O. (2019). Mapping the Cinematic City: Adana in Yılmaz Güney’s Film. Communication & Methods, 1(2), 209–220.

İlke Şanlıer Yüksel & Aydın Çam

Çukurova is a region where human mobility is increased along with the radical transformations in the settlement processes since the 17^th century. Since then, the Yörüks, which constitute an important part of the region’s population and engage in nomadic practices between Çukurova Plato and Taurus Mountains, have been largely settled and nomadism is tried to be kept alive culturally. The fact that the demand for the village and especially Yörük films in Çukurova is connected with this practice.

Based on the New Cinema History approach, we interpret audience-recalled films, one of the findings of the research that explored the cinema experiences of the 1960s to 1980s in the Taurus highland villages. Some of the films that participants remembered during the oral histories are based on the Yörük myths and legends and some others are based on the stories of writers who were born and raised in these villages. Therefore, narratives and narrative structures of these films are local. Furthermore, the production, distribution and demonstration practices of these films are also local and distinctive, which would characterize the epoch. These films met the local demand by being equipped with local elements and features through the model of regional management.

Şanlıer Yüksel, İ., & Çam, A. (2019). Çukurova’da 1960-1980 Dönemi Sinema Pratiklerinin Özel Bir Örneği: Yörük Filmleri. Sinecine: Sinema Araştırmaları Dergisi, 10(2), 291–320.

İlke Şanlıer Yüksel & Aydın Çam

In this study, the history of Adana cinemas is studied together with the women’s movie-going experiences from the New Cinema History approach. This approach, which became widespread in the post-2000s in order to overcome the limitations of traditional/mainstream cinema historiography, proposes contextual and methodological premises that focus on the practices of screening, urban or rural cinema spaces, the social and cultural history of the experience of going to cinema and the practice of watching itself. Within the scope of the study, Akgünler newspaper, Görüşler and Çukurova magazines published by Adana Halkevi between 1935-1951 were searched. In addition, the archives of Yeni Adana newspaper, which has been published in Adana since 1918, and Türksözü newspaper that published between 1923 and 1966, were also searched for the news containing information on women’s experiences. Furthermore, the data obtained from oral history interviews conducted in the city centre and Taurus plateau villages were used to investigate the movie-going experiences in the 1960-1980 period when Adana cinemas reached its historical peak. The main findings of the study comprise that: Cinemas were male-dominated areas in the early period of Adana and treated as pure male entertainment. During the Turkish nation-state building and modernization period, cinema became instrumentalized and within this context women and girls came across with cinema experience. In 1960-1980 period, cinema has worked as a new public space by providing women the opportunity to leave the house, socialize with other women and experience the city in new ways and deliver the feeling of freedom in a way. In the light of these findings, the study discusses how the experience of movie-going, has created a public sphere for the women in Adana through cinema spaces, the movies they remember and the social relations with other women and men.

Şanlıer Yüksel, İ., & Çam, A. (2019). Adana Sinema Tarihinden Kadınların Seyir Deneyimine Dair Fragmanlar. Kültür ve İletişim, 44, 63–94.

Aydın Çam & İlke Şanlıer Yüksel

Drawing apart from the traditional methods of mainstream cinema history research and based on the New Cinema History approach, this research focuses on the cinema experiences of Taurus highland villagers located at an altitude of approximately 1.500 meters and at a distance of about 170 km to Adana and about 70 km to Mersin from 1960 to 1980. The main objective is to explore the cinematic experiences of the villagers of Taurus highlands through travelling cinema and/or cinema halls, and to identify and analyse the cultural changes/transformations that took place through cinema. In this context, some research questions can be listed as follows: (1) In which places and under what occasions did the film screenings take place in Taurus highland villages between 1960 and 1980? (2) Who had participated to the screenings and what were the moviegoing experiences of these participants? (3) What were the reflections of the moviegoing experiences in the daily life of highland villagers? (4) What were the contributions of cinema to cultural transformation in these villages? If there were any, how can we define these transformations? In order to carry out this study, we identified the highland villages to research from the works of writer and scriptwriter Osman Şahin. In the selection of the villages, we followed the route of Musa Özder, a travelling film exhibitor, and his statements in an interview entitled “Cinema Investigation in the Taurus Mountains,” conducted by Osman Şahin in 1974 for the Yedinci Sanat magazine. Hence, we conducted oral history interviews with villagers who were born in or before 1970 and lived in Taurus plateau villages within the borders of Mersin province between 1960 and 1980. Based on our findings, we conclude with a discussion of how the cinema activities and places, and moviegoing experiences in these villages may direct us to quite different paths from the Western notions of audience in traditional/conventional cinema studies.

Çam, A., & Şanler Yüksel, İ. (2019). Toros Yayla Köylerinde Sinema Deneyimleri: Modernlik, Şehir, Sinema ve Seyirci İlişkilerine Dair Bir Soruşturma (Özel Sayı). SineFilozofi, 415–436.

Çam, A. (2019). Adana Sinemalarının Altın Yıllarına Genel Bir Bakış. D. Bayrakdar (Ed.), Türk Film Araştırmalarında Yeni Yönelimler 15 – Sinema ve Yeşilçam içinde (ss. 49–62). Bağlam Yayıncılık.

Çam, A. (2019). Bir Yaz Gecesi Rüyasında Yitip Giden Zaman, Mekân ve İnsan. N. Tutal (Ed.), Kent Kitabı – Mimariden Müziğe, Kahvecilerden Mezar Taşlarına içinde (ss. 148–155). Varlık Yayınları.

Aydın Çam

This study proposes an analysis of the film industry in the Adana region between 1960 and 1975, focusing on film distributors as well as cinema managers. The study firstly aims to identify film distributors and cinema managers who were active in the region at that time through local sources and the activities of film distributers. In addition, organizational forms of entrepreneurships in this sector also examined. In the study, data gathered through primary sources such as archive of Adana Chamber of Commerce, local journals and newspapers conventionally are categorized by coding due to the of research questions. The structure of cinema economics in Adana between 1965 and 1975 has been analysed and commented by a thematic study of data collected during the research. The main findings are as following: There were around 90 film distribution companies, 110 open-air cinemas and movie theatres in Adana. The production, distribution and screening entrepreneurs operated in multi- partnered way. Some entrepreneurs had united under an association and acted in cooperation to protect their commercial interests. The film industry in Adana region was financially strong enough to support the national film production and economical activities on the field had conducted by complex partnerships between 1960 and 1975.

Çam, A. (2018). 1960–1975 Yılları Arasında Adana’da Filmcilik ve Sinemacılık İşi. Galatasaray Üniversitesi İleti-ş-im Dergisi, 28, 9–41.