A joia do bairro: o Cine Joia e a identidade cultural de Copacabana

Abstract

This ethnographic case study seeks the connection between Cine Joia and Copacabana in the divergences and convergences found in the social representations present in the testimonials of cinemagoers of Cine Joia, one of the last two examples of street movie theaters in the neighborhood that once had 15 cinemas functioning at the same time between 1967 and 1968. Through these testimonies, collected through semi-structured interviews, it was possible to verify Cine Joia as part of the cultural identity of Copacabana for the interviewees, despite the contradictions between cinema and the neighborhood for these same people. In addition, it was possible to explain the senses, sensations and experiences of movie watching that these interviewees associate with Cine Joia. The study, which also used participant observation and bibliographic and documentary surveys, also brings memories, sociability and territorialities experienced at Cine Joia and the characterization of the cinema and the neighborhood that preserves it, with a survey of the other cinema exhibition sites that inhabited Copacabana and what these spaces have become.