Keyword – Arab film history

Kaposi, Ildikó:

Histories of Gulf Cinema

Gulf cinema in all its forms was intertwined with the processes of negotiating modernity, within whose framework national identities were created and transformed, development goals were set and connections were forged with transnational cultural currents. Film was part of Gulf visual cultures that emerged in the mid-20th century, with art, architecture, fashion, media and advertising all contributing to local spectacles of modernisation. The new millennium saw the emerging region turn to film as a medium for expressing the “will to visibility” (Akil 2016), where both aesthetics and power relations manifested in various strategies of visibility. Power relations played a role in the acceptance, rejection or control of cinema as an instrument of modernity. Within non-linear patterns of development, competing practices and conflicting conceptions emerged regarding what the social role of filmmaking might be in the Persian Gulf.

Keywords: Arab film history, cinema, modernity, Persian Gulf, visual culture