From West to East: Cinema-Going and the Reinvention of Urban Culture in Mid-Century Tel Aviv

Lunch provided

In early Israel, cinema-going was a cornerstone of urban life, profoundly shaped by waves of mass migration. This talk spotlights the Zohar Cinema in southern Tel Aviv, established as a community initiative by residents of an immigrant neighborhood. During the 1960s, the Zohar Cinema underwent a transformation, shifting from screening Hollywood films to exclusively showcasing films from Turkey, Greece, Iran, and India. What drove this transformation? How did it reshape the audience experience? What unique affordances did these films offer viewers? Drawing on oral histories, this talk will explore the role these films have played in the lives of their viewers, situating these experiences within broader social and cultural frameworks.