Videoteca

JECO - Electronic Games on the Computer 1989
" Advertisement film for video games made by CENTROCOOP. "

Those Intrepid Men and Their Complex Machines 1987
Let’s work, but how? reproachfully asks one of the workers from the Station for the Mechanization of Agriculture (SMA) in Țăndărei, where filmmaker T. Barta was sent to document the lives of an agricultural brigade. Commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, the film was intended for screening in cinemas. Eight days had been allocated for the full shoot, without prior recce. On the first day, the filmmaker gathered the men round a fire—without having informed the local mayor, the Party Secretary or the head of the SMA, as was customary at the time—and recorded their thoughts about their work: sound only, no images. Once that was completed, the remaining days were dedicated to collecting images of the community.

Quality Control 1984
Ada Pistiner’s investigation of the sources of substandard domestic items pushes its commissioned mandate to self-scrutiny, questioning both state-imposed industrial production and filmmaking processes.

Industrial Robots 1983
" A popularisation film, based on our researches and discoveries in the domain of the most advanced branch of technology, an attempt of clarifying the principles by which these strong helpers of men function, especially of how their "senses" systems work. "

The "Electromotor" Timișoara Enterprise presents the Industrial Robot "REMT 1" - Part I 1982
" The "Electromotor" Timișoara enterprise presents the industrial robot "REMT 1" which replaces stereotypical and tiresome activities through a rhythmic and harmonious execution. This robot is mostly used for assembly purposes. "

The Roads I Have Wandered 1982
A look at Romania's increasing mechanization in the seventies told from the perspective of a wanderer.

The Night School Students 1982
Bearing the signature melancholy, affection, and absurdist irony of associative form that would define his filmography, Copel Moscu’s debut is a loving portrait of miners and their arduous, sun-deprived existence.

For Our Heirs, More Stories About Bucharest 1980
A cine-postcard directed at the Bucharest of 2080, For Our Heirs… is a charming time capsule whose innocuous humour and visuals will soon stand in sharp contrast to the harsh reality of the decade’s austerity measures.

Open files 1975
A more experimental aproach to labor protection films. In the line of Săucan's style, the soundtrack is as important as the image, the threatening music, full of shrillness, composed by Ion Dumitrescu potentiating the visual construction that mixes - in a montage reminiscent of the Soviet avant-garde school of the 1920s - all kinds of shooting techniques and frame combinations.

The Diary of Florica S. 1975
Director Eugenia Gutu offers a feminist critique of gender (in)equality under socialism in this documentary portrait of an industrializing town and its model citizen, Florica S.

Winter of a slacker 1974
At the beginning of the 70s, Sahia Studio produced a number of social investigations commissioned by the Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party, intended to expose the so-called "social parasitism". The decision was taken after the theses of July 1971, which provide that "one of the main objectives of political work, especially among the youth, is the firm fight against the tendencies of parasitism, of an easy life, without work, the cultivation of responsibility and the duty to work , in the service of the country, the people, the socialist society". The most famous films, made with the competition of the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice, are Să treacă vara and Iarna unor pierde vară

The Hottest Day 1974
This film consists of almost twenty minutes coverage of a political rally, filmed by more than ten Sahia cameramen, during the celebration of the thirtieth anniversary of 23 August 1944, ‘the first day of the socialist era’. The Hottest Day is part of a rich author filmography, which includes around one hundred titles, such as A Life Dedicated to the Happiness of the People (1978); Homage (1983); The Party, The Homeland, The People (1986); Heroic Times in Legendary Lands (1987). When the Sahia documentaries obediently followed their political commission, their length could surpass the usual ten to twenty minutes, even reaching feature length. The Hottest Day was one of the shortest film in this category that we could find in the archives.

Craiova Viewed from a Cart 1974
Travelogue of Craiova, a (then-)small town in southwestern Romania.

Along the Frumoasa Valley 1974
The industrial site, the dam under construction and the colony of workers’ housing attached to them are among the favourite spaces of the Sahia documentary, especially during the last decade of the communist regime. The work on the country’s numerous industrial sites is a constant theme included in the annual Thematic Plans of the studio, therefore repeatedly fixed on film and repeatedly missed, or at least simplified by the documentaries of the time, always completed under the pressure of the political imperative.

Remember 1973
The gradual opening-up of Romania during the 1960s continued with the reorganisation, in 1972, of the national strategy for culture and tourism promotion, and the establishment, as part of the new Council for Culture and Socialist Education (CCES), of a special commission in charge of the national strategy for incoming foreign tourists. It was in this context that the National Tourrism Office (ONT) strategically commissioned, via its media arm Publiturism, a series of films meant to persuade various communities from the Romanian diaspora to spend their holidays – and their money – “back home” in Romania.

Letter from Romania 1973
Part of a series of promotional films commissioned by Romania's National Tourism Office in the early 1970s with the aim of reconnecting diasporic communities with the country they left behind. In this case, the film is addressed to Jews who emigrated in the context of the Second World War or were sold by the Romanian state to the State of Israel starting in the 50s and settled in Israel and the USA - therefore, a target group made up of seniors, probably retired , possibly prosperous, eager to revisit the places of youth and willing to forget, temporarily, the traumas associated with them.

Then The City Was Born 1972
Documentary about the fall of the old city of Orșova due to the construction of the Iron Gates hydroelectric power station.

Let The Summer Pass 1972
A public service announcement condemning the ominous obstacle of social parasitism and delinquency amongst wayward youth unwilling to contribute to Romania’s socialist advancement.

Ședința s-a amânat a doua oară 1971
Counterintelligence film from communist Romania.

Adolescence 1969 star_border 6
"This wonderful age in life where every thought strives toward an ideal, toward work, toward the future." Sahia Studios propaganda flick about how adults and their "those darn kids" attitudes affect adolescents.

Show more expand_more