Ilona Jurkonytė
Texts
Image Production and Curation
Other Explorations
I am a film and moving image researcher and curator, currently a Marie Skłodowska‑Curie Actions / UKRI Postdoctoral Fellow at the School of Modern Languages and Centre for Exoplanet Science at the University of St Andrews. In my work I focus on moving image, media, and environmental justice.
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© Ilona Jurkonytė. All Rights Reserved.
Cinema Rescue
Romuva Cinema, 1960s
Romuva Projection Booth, 2009 © Ilona Jurkonytė. All Rights Reserved. Peer Reviewed Publication
Spatial Parameters of Romuva Cinema Rescue
In this text I propose a spatial frame for analysis of
transformations of cinema theatres in Lithuania since 1990. To better
understand the processes and meanings that feature in the shift from
state-controlled to free market cinema culture, spatial definitions are better
suited than the traditional focus on cinephilia. While retaining attention on
the cinema theatre space, I analyse the processes shaping post-USSR film
exhibition culture and the effects it produces.
This spatial analysis of cinema
theatre is informed by my film curatorial practice; it applies discourse
analysis, ethnographic, and autoethnographic methods. I explore debates around
the public film screening infrastructures in the context of the shift from
public to private ownership and the challenges of articulating public interest
under such conditions. Through the case of Romuva cinema’s (Kaunas, Lithuania)
rescue, the analysis highlights the formation and perseverance of cinematic
public space across economic systems, legal frameworks, and institutional
settings.
Ilona Jurkonytė. “Spatial Parameters of Romuva Cinema Rescue.” Eastern European Screen Studies, July 8, 2025, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/29974828.2025.2521937.