We came, we saw, we loved: Cinema Museum

Last Monday, me and my friends visited Adana cinema museum. The museum was one of the old Adana houses, then restored by Adana Metropolitan Municipality. It has been opened to visitors on September 2011. As understood from its name, the museum aims to inform people about the importance of Adana in Turkish cinema history. For this aim, many objects are on display: movie posters, cameras, model sculptures, books, old DVDs, stuffs used in the movies and belongings of the artists. The posters feature most of the space and at least one of the artists we saw on the posters is from Adana, which is the main point of the museum. The artists include Yılmaz Güney, Muzaffer İzgü, Abidin Dino, Şener Şen, Orhan Kemal and so on.

(Low budget model sculptures)

Unfortunately, I was not satisfied with the museum. First of all, the content is too general. There is no specification like ‘’Adana’s role in Yeşilçam’’ or ‘’Adana’s role in modern cinema’’. There are many things to see but the building is too small. It looks like a storeroom. All the posters and stuff tire your eyes. Second, there are many things with so little information. We see many movie posters, but what is the importance of these films? Informative texts are not enough, plus there is no translated text for tourists. Third, it is not well designed. Some of the shelves are covered with sticky tapes. The air conditioners do not suit the atmosphere. There is a ‘’library’’ but the shelves are locked. So, visitors are not allowed to read.

Opening a cinema museum in Adana was a good idea, but it was not a well-planned project. Maybe because the entrance is free, the officials do not give enough attention to this museum. For this reason, it does not attract people. Also, the location of the place is hard to find, far away from the city center. I think this museum needs a bigger building and renewals. More books, better model sculptures, and contexts can be added to the museum. There is a big potential behind this idea.