Interview | Urban Media Archive

Movies and Lviv: Communities

Movie clubs in the Soviet times were places for discussions and windows into another world. There were shifts of focus over time, but the idea of watching good movies together remained central. The phenomenon of movie clubs changed subject to various local, regional, national, and global contexts. Not only did it reflect the characteristics of the global cinema culture, but it also mirrored the specific features of individual cities.
This collection of interviews contains eight recordings (six with movie clubbers, one with a film distribution representative, and one with a Lviv Television director) produced in the period from November 2012 to May 2013. The conversations were held with the use of semi-structured in-depth interviews and revolved around various thematic blocks depending on the interviewee. The questions were about the launch of movie clubs, movie listings and showtimes, the membership community, interaction with the city, etc. If necessary, they were adjusted to specific interlocutors and their job functions. The methodology was designed by Natalia Otrishchenko. The recordings were made as part of the historical research on Lviv’s cinema landscape that also included examining the functioning of the system of movie theaters and the impact of movie screenings on the city life.
Full transcripts are available within the UStories project. You can also read and listen to extracts from some interviews on the Lviv Interactive webpage. Interviews were conducted in Ukrainian.
Reference to the collection: Based on the materials of the UStories project of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe, collection “Movies and Lviv: Communities, Viewing, Creation”.
Reference to the interview: Interview with specialization, age, recorded date of the interview. Interviewer: firstnamelastname // Archive of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe “UStories”, collection “Collection title”, p. page number.
Example: Interview with a movie club organizer, 27, recorded on May 29, 2013. Interviewer: Natalia Otrishchenko // Archive of the Center for Urban History of East Central Europe “UStories”, collection “Movies and Lviv: Communities, Viewing, Creation”, p. 7.