History of Cinema Museum (aka HOC), formerly known as the Dubai Moving Image Museum, is a fascinating museum that showcases the rich history of cinema. You will see the long road that moving pictures have gone to get to this point where you can sit on a chair in a big movie theatre and watch your favorite movies with a small charge.
From its early, low-tech beginnings through the advent of contemporary cinema, the museum traces the development of moving images. The museum was constructed around the collection of moving picture devices owned by Akram Mikna, which dates back to the 1730s and is conveniently located just off Sheikh Zayed Road.
The collection traces the evolution of visual storytelling from shadow puppetry to pinhole cameras to peek boxes to magic lanterns to current animation and cinematography. Try your hand at a mutoscope from the 20th century or a Dutch peep box viewer from the 18th.
Learn the history of storytelling as it evolved over the course of centuries in Han Dynasty China. Come see the show and find out how this ancient art made its way throughout the world. The History of Cinema Museum gives visitors a first-person look at the attempts that have been made by humans to document the passage of time.
Visitors of any age are welcome at Dubai’s History of Cinema Museum. Anyone interested in storytelling will like the museum’s story. The museum was founded by Mr. Akram Miknas, a Bahraini/Lebanese businessman with a passion for photography, to share the artifacts, digital clips, and interactive models he acquired over the course of 35 years to illustrate the origins of movies.
More than 300 rare artifacts are on display at the museum, which was inaugurated by Sheikh Majid Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who is the chairman of the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. The History of Cinema Museum houses a collection of rare and spectacular artifacts, making it the only museum of its type in the world and a top attraction in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.
The museum’s collection spans the whole history of visual entertainment, from the early days of shadow theatre to the discovery of 3D and the advent of contemporary film, and all of the pieces on display are originals from the 1730s to the 20th century.
The History Of Cinema Museum in Tecom, Barsha Heights, is an interactive experience where kids and adults alike may take a fantastical trip through time.
Highlights of History of Cinema Museum – HOC
The History of Cinema Museum was established to showcase the personal collection of Mr. Akram Miknas, which he has amassed over the course of twenty-five years, with the intention of inspiring and educating the local community about an exciting period of history. Everything in the museum is authentic and dates from the 1730s to the 1900s.
Both the museum’s subject matter and its physical setting make it one of a kind. Visitors of all ages are able to engage with the museum’s collection at Dubai’s History of Cinema Museum, turning the reel of a mutoscope from the early 20th century to experience the flicker effect and peering into a Dutch peep box viewer from the 18th century.
The history of peepshow viewers, sometimes known as peep boxes, dates back to 15th-century Europe. This newfangled invention has been providing amusement for hundreds of years. The viewer is transported into a realm of incredible wonder and discovery with just a pinhole or magnifying lens.
Traveling showmen put up their Peep Boxes at fairs and marketplaces around Europe, presenting pictures of battles, exotic locations, and historical events. You can see peep boxes in person in the History of Cinema Museum.
Conclusion
By touching and playing with artifacts like the Dutch peep box viewer from the eighteenth century or the early twentieth-century mutoscope for its flicker effect, visitors of all ages are able to fully experience the rich history of the moving image at Dubai’s Moving Image Museum.
Visiting this museum is a once-in-a-lifetime experience that will allow you to go back in time and see the great history of moving pictures. Follow us on social media to see more photos of Dubai’s many attractions.