My project questions the implications of the inherited and adapted Cultures on my identity and to think about the different influences a type of culture has on the individual and the collective. I grew up in Tel Aviv, Israel, a monocultural society that highly believes in patriotism and heroism, in the idea of a collective identity, that a person’s sense of belonging to a group goes beyond the individual. In my early 20s I was privileged to be exposed to a different culture and life agenda of a multicultural society. I live today in London, a city where immigration became one of its more important characteristics, a society that “allows” you to keep your own background and even celebrate it. With my project I want to observe and examine the different influences it has on who I am and perhaps on others with similar backgrounds to mine.

I would explore and study more in depth these questions through cinematography and movie reviews. I will start with my own experience of watching and rewatching the Japanese animated movie ‘Spirited Away’ with a 20 year gap between each time. I will compare the differences between the experiences I had as a 8 years old child in Tel Aviv and a 28 years old adult in London, with an emphasis on the preconceived ideas I had each time. I would explore it personally but as well on the national scale of the city and country, hence the society and culture I belong to each time, and would study how the public opinion is shaped in each of the places. I would use the media of movie reviews to observe the similarities and differences as a way to indicate the influences of language, tradition and culture on our experiences.

Multiples, repetition and seriality are main elements in my research. The idea of comparing between different types of cultures and repetitively looking at the same question trying to observe it through different lenses in order to find an answer is a main tool in my analysis. I believe I can gain a more thorough understanding about my research question when multiplying the same analysis method and I am curious to see the contrasts between my individual experiences and the national and collective ones.

Using specific mediums, cinematography and movie reviews articles, as a way to explore further a research question is a method of studying that I have been gaining through this course. Analysing it through writing is an important part in concluding it.

The aim of the project is to understand if rather the way I experience and interpret situations is rooted and/or influenced by the society I was, am and will belong to. I would like to end the article with a thought of what I have learnt about myself during the research process and if being more aware of those cultural influences would impact me in the future.