'Feel the film': Film projectionists and professional memory. (January 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Česálková, Lucie
• Editors: Kuhn, Annette; Biltereyst, Daniel; Meers, Philippe
• Is Part Of: Memory studies. Volume 10:Number 1(2017:Jan.)
• Page Start: 49
• Page End: 62
• Publication Date: 2017-01
• Subjects: cinema memory -- communities of practice -- film projection -- professional memory; Memory -- Periodicals; Memory -- Periodicals; 153.1205
• DOI: 10.1177/1750698016670789
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1750-6980

Abstract

Deploying concepts of professional memory and communities of practice, this article draws on interviews with two generations of film projectionists in Brno in the Czech Republic to investigate the profession of film projectionist as a phenomenon at the boundaries of memory studies, sociology, social anthropology and film history. From this standpoint, a study of cinema employees' professional memory revises and refines the concept of cinema memory as examined from the cinemagoer's perspective. The article sets out the key tropes of projectionists' memories and discusses them in the context of the legal background, professional status, standards of good practice and relationships within the professional community. Analysing the conditions under which the professional identity of film projectionist has been formed, it takes into account the current obsolescence of traditional screening techniques and analyses the significance of film screening quality and the related perception of the projectionist as a creator of a screening as significant motifs in projectionists' memories.