Approaches to Spatial Analysis in a Local Cinema History Research

Abstract

In a growing interest in spatial visualisation of historical data emphasized within the field of the new cinema history, identifying the methodologies, their benefits as well as obstacles, is crucial for the development of optimal approaches to the research of the past of the local film culture. The main goal of this paper is to introduce several possibilities of treatment of historical data in a geospatial context. On the case study on the local cinema history and culture in Brno, the Czech Republic, during the 1930s, this paper proposes methodologies of visualisation and analysis of historical data transferred to the spatial context, identifies the challenges of visualisation of ambiguous qualitative data and introduces the treatment of temporal dimension of data within geographical space. This paper aspires to become a contribution to growing field of spatial approaches to cinema history. It proposes several methodologies of how to visualize, analyse and understand historical data in spatial-temporal context.