Moving Pictures in Motion: Methods of Geographical Analysis and Visualisation in Comparative Research on Local Film Exhibition Using a Case Study of Brno and Ghent in 1952

In recent years, spatial digital tools have become an important part of New Cinema History research. However, the use of spatial visualisation methods remains inconsistent and the ground norms have yet to be established, especially in a comparative approach. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of working with spatial visualisation: what are the benefits of its use and what new perspectives on a given problem can this approach reveal? Drawing on a quantitative analysis of cinema programmes, we incorporate geospatial as well as temporal aspects of film trajectories. In doing so, we explore to what extent the communication between cinemas and their strategies of programming can be explained through the geospatial perspective. By visualising the film circulation within two mid-sized cities (Ghent in Belgium and Brno in the Czech Republic) in 1952, the method reveals patterns in film trajectories and relationships between the cinemas. These findings show the potential for the incorporation of geospatial visualisation in a comparative research design.