Adana Sinema Müzesi

The Adana Cinema Museum is a cinema museum on the corner where Seyhan Avenue meets 26025 Street in the Kayalıbağ neighbourhood of Seyhan district. The museum opened on 23 September 2011 and is described as the second cinema museum in Turkey. Its aim is to present directors, actors and producers from Adana, as well as Adana writers whose works have been adapted for the screen. In this way the museum tells the story not of a single person but of a city's long relationship with cinema. The museum building is as interesting as its collection. It was created by restoring the sixth and seventh plots of a row of attached mansions built in the old city centre on the western bank of the Seyhan River. The two storey building, formed by joining two historic houses, keeps its original architectural features despite the repairs it has undergone. The restoration was carried out by the Adana Metropolitan Municipality. According to the municipality's guide, the area around the museum is part of the Tepebağ quarter, where old Adana houses, most of them built in the 18th century, are gathered. The ground floor is devoted to film posters. The museum's selection rule is that every poster on display must carry at least one name from Adana, such as the director, an actor or the screenwriter. This rule turns a walk past the poster walls into a small game, because searching each poster for the name linked to Adana brings the visit to life. The municipality's guide counts the museum among the most important of the Tepebağ houses that have been restored and opened to tourism. Among the posters are works from a period beginning in the 1940s and scenes from Yeşilçam films that people still watch. The rooms on the upper floor are arranged by theme. The museum includes the Nostalgia Room, the Yılmaz Güney Room, the Mehmet Baltacı Collection Room, the Travel Room, the New Generation Artists Room, the Adana Producers Room, the Golden Boll Room and the Adana Artists Room. The room devoted to Yılmaz Güney displays a wax figure of the artist, posters of his films, photographs and film equipment. The painter and filmmaker Abidin Dino and the novelists Yaşar Kemal and Orhan Kemal, whose books inspired many films, are among the other figures presented in the museum. Other cinema workers with ties to Adana, such as the actor Şener Şen and his father Ali Şen, the directors Şahin Kaygun and Ali Özgentürk and the writer Muzaffer İzgü, also appear through their photographs and belongings. The Golden Boll Room tells the history of the Golden Boll Film Festival organised by the Adana Metropolitan Municipality. Founded in 1969, the festival is the most visible part of the city's cinema identity, and the museum serves as a kind of archive of this heritage. The wax figures in the museum were made by Jale Kuşan and Tülay Aktaş. The collection also includes film equipment, photographs of actors, awards and interview texts. The museum also has a cinema library. It holds 3,500 books donated by the film historian Alberto Modiano, the oldest of which dates from 1891. According to the KarSeM article, special film screenings and workshops are also held at the museum from time to time. For visitors interested in film history, this section is a quiet stop to make after the exhibition rooms. According to Wikipedia, the museum has an accessible entrance, parking, companion service, toilets, audio description and tactile surfaces for visitors with disabilities. The easiest way to visit is to start with the posters on the ground floor, climb the stairs to the upper floor and walk through the rooms in turn. By looking at the wooden joinery, the ceilings and the room layout, you also get to see the interior of an old Adana house. When you come out, a short walk among the restored Tepebağ houses nearby is a fine way to round off the museum visit. The museum lies on the western bank of the river within walking distance of Taşköprü and the Atatürk House Museum, and it is easy to reach from the city centre by public transport. Parking can be difficult in the narrow streets around it, so arriving on foot is more comfortable. Opening days and hours may change, so check the current information with the Adana Metropolitan Municipality.