The Cinematic Streetscape in Potsdam

In the city of film Potsdam, there are 42 streets named after filmmakers. This book tells the story of Potsdam’s cinematic streetscape together with a short biography of each of the film personalities involved. The cinematic streetscape is quantitatively analyzed and interpreted as a palimpsest, as a cultural arena, and as a performative space. Older, overlooked, and forgotten layers of the streetscape come to light, and it is outlined how the practice of street naming has changed over the decades. Memory–political disputes about street names in Potsdam are reconstructed. The results of the book show how the cinematic streetscape, together with other cinematic elements and due to different echo effects, creates a filmic-induced urban space, characterized by overwriting, disputes over questions of representation, and processes of interaction with the cinematic streetscape.

For the first time in film studies, a model of a circular film-related spatial practice constituting cities of film is presented, enabling a new understanding of them as assemblages. Furthermore, this book relates city-centered film studies with critical street-name studies and combines citizen research, film history—i. e., humanities research—, social science methods, a scientific–artistic writing concept, and a revisionist perspective. Numerous illustrations and district maps enable identification of the cinematic streets, while graphics make the often complex scientific modeling comprehensible. A hyperlink structure links the main text with the short biographies of the filmmakers, allowing access to linked institutions and sources and producing a film-studies publication that also functions as an experimental public-interest publication.