This article critically assesses the role and broader applications of a place-based moving image database and online catalogue in researching film and cities. Unlike the sprawling metropolises of Berlin, London or New York (the archetypical ‘cinematic cities’), a medium-sized provincial city such as Liverpool offers a more localized urban landscape conducive to place-based studies of film. The form and structure of the database plays a crucial role in the mapping of historical film and urban geography, allowing for relational forms of spatial analysis. This prompts a wider set of questions: in what ways can the database inform and structure specific spatial narratives of the city over time? What, by extension, are the cultural and historiographical implications for research into film, place and space? Finally, to what extent might a database model of the ‘city in film’ be extended beyond local and regional boundaries to reshape national discourses of film historiography?
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