Cinema, modern life and cultural identity, 1896 - 1940

This programme examines how the rise of the cinema - as a symptom and catalyst of processes of social and cultural change - figured in the experience of modern life in the Netherlands and thereby seeks to explain why the integration of the cinema into Dutch culture took place in a way that was fundamentally different from other European countries. Working from the history of cinema in its first decades, our research will focus in particular on issues of modernisation and identity formation, and their interrelation - issues central to the current debates about mass media and cultural identity. By studying the articulation of cinema and modernity in the Netherlands, we hope to strengthen the position of Dutch film historiography within the international field of media studies, and fuel the international debate about the emergence of film and the broader culture of modernity with a contribution that draws attention to specific Dutch developments