At the Nexus of cinema, city and memory: Resisting the demolition of Istanbul's historical Emek movie theatre

Abstract

Emek was the oldest surviving movie theatre in Istanbul when it was demolished in 2013 so that a shopping mall could be built in its place, spawning a persistent civic resistance. Sitting at the juxtaposition of the vibrant literatures on urban studies, film studies, and memory studies, the article demonstrates that emotions, evoked by memories, have a part in triggering urban resistance, adding to the flourishing literature on how emotions inspire and sustain activism. Specifically, it provides ethnographic evidence for the presence of a positive link between place attachment and willingness to engage in place-protective behaviour, stressing the role played by memories in this regard. Focusing on a historical movie theatre, on the other hand, also reveals the complex spatiality of cinematic experience, stressing the importance of social relations and vicinity of the theatre (the street in particular) in this specific context. A final set of contributions derived from the case of Emek relates to the notions of “failure” and “sustainability of activism” given that the resistance to Emek's demolition is characterised by its resilience and persistence as well as a determination to “resist to forget”, despite the failure, practices of emotional reflexivity playing a key role in this respect.