The Intangible Cinema Project: City. Cinema. War

Since its inception, cinema has been captivated by the allure of the great metropolises—at times elevating them to mythic status, at others rendering them a living hell. In this process, the boundaries between the cinematic image of the city and its lived reality have blurred.

The birth of cinema and the evolution of urban culture unfolded alongside the rise of 20th-century political ideologies and seismic historical events, many of which brought destruction to the heart of the city. Consequently, cinema—and the urban image reflected within it—became a mediator of historical trauma, a space where genre-defining works serve as allegories for society’s repressed anxieties.

In this event, we will examine the encounter between built space and cinematic space, asking how architecture, urbanism, film, and history merge to reveal the haunted collective subconscious of post-war cities (and perhaps, at times, even prophesy their fate).

Our journey follows a chronological arc: from early "City Symphonies," through post-WWII Italian and German cinema, the American cinematic response to the Vietnam War and the 9/11 attacks, culminating in a contemporary look at the Gaza Strip and the "Otef" region under the shadow of the current war.

Doors Open: 19:30

Event Starts: 20:00

Moderator: Shani Kiniso, film researcher and critic, co-founder of "The Intangible Cinema Project"

Content Development: Moran Navon, Content Manager, Liebling Haus

Metropolis” (1927) advertisement, Archives New Zealand, via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0