Surge of Transference is a video essay that investigates the expansion of the internet in a small Romanian town, where communities have formed and shifted around the newly imported Western technology. Within this micro-universe, the video traces the rapid transformation of the Internet, from the early days of peer-to-peer software to the upload of online late capitalism.
"The whole world is a stage and all people are actors. They rise and fall in turn, each one: A man plays several roles in life, And the acts are the seven ages..." (William Shakespeare, How You Like It) The story of a man - Mihai Sarca - for whom the theater means everything and for whom a whole life defined himself by his passion for the stage and for the people who serve it, thus becoming the treasurer of an archive collection and, at the same time, a living encyclopedia of the Romanian theatrical phenomenon of the last century.
The documentary presents a series of pickpockets who have elevated pickpocketing to an art form. We delve into their personal and professional lives and discover the mentality and spirit behind such thefts. We hear the stories of people who come from disadvantaged backgrounds, who have had addictions, who grew up on the streets or people who have come to know first hand the systems, laws and conditions of detention in different prisons across Europe. Some are incurably ill, others have become integrated into the social systems of other countries, have learned to read and write, have a social life, have a home and spend their time constructively.
The world of Viorica Cătuna, from Poiana Cătunarilor, in Transylvania, somewhere at 1200 meters altitude. A former teacher, she has always been passionate about knowledge, books, poetry and music. We learn her story, the history of her family and the history of her community, all in correlation with historical events that have taken place over the years. A portrait of this woman and the times, from when she learns the stories of her family to the future plans she has in her 80s. A charismatic and storied character, an encyclopedia of a vanishing community.
A film constructed on a text that seems to be a theatrical performance rather than the transcript of a trial. The camera traces facades of communist housing blocks, depressingly unchanged over the years, as the transcript from the trial of Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena, is read without pause or emotion. The intensity of the film is created by the tension between the dizzying and unceasing movement of the camera and the continuous and expressionless reading of the trial script, recording a very dark episode of modern history. — Anthology Film Archives
Every autumn, shepherds from Transylvania set off with their flocks in search of green grass. This Sheep Road is to some extent like the famous historic Silk Road and the Salt Road.
Once upon a time, there was a little girl who lived happily with her parents and her younger sister. But the little girl lived in Romania and her parents really wanted a house for them, so they went to work in Spain. The little girl stayed with her sister in the care of her grandmother and so the years passed, until one day the little sister told her that their parents were going to return. So the little girl began to hope.
The film explores sites and practices of memory in post-socialist Bucharest, twenty years after the fall of Romanian communism. It was shot in Cismigiu Gardens, one of the oldest public parks in Bucharest. This central, urban space attracts people from all walks of life. It is a place for social interaction, solitary reflection, reverie, and memory. Interweaving recollections of the past with present-day scenes from the park, the film presents a montage of stillness and motion, images and voices, landscapes and people.
A split-screen animated film that explores the complex nature of memory in contemporary post-communist Romania. Using a collection of everyday, household objects as windows into the past, it features 16mm stop-motion animations of these artifacts, projected alongside selections of interviews from the ethnographic research with the objects’ owners.
"Aflați despre mine..." stands as a quintessential social documentary from the perspective of 1980s filmmakers, delving into the effects of labor migration from agriculture to urban industry. Filmed in bachelor accommodations, it captures the intimate confessions of residents, offering faces and voices to the societal shifts in socialist times. The documentary, set against a backdrop of dormitory life, features a nuanced soundtrack blending informal interviews with the monotony of daily routines. Panning from window to window, the camera reveals the aspirations of temporary dwellers dreaming of a future beyond provisional living and aiming to settle into homes of their own.
The film is a classical process-film that describes the making of commercial products, from initial manufacturing of raw material to final selling.
The film didactically exemplifies a few police and coroner procedures, from gathering clues at a crime scene to doing autopsies.
This anonymous film shows a series of standard procedures involving treating various illnesses, for the future nurses.
There's disagreement between heart and reason. While trying to find common ground, they quarrel like blind.
A woman gives shape to octopuses out of her own flesh. When she runs out of matter, she has to face what she has created.
a scream bothers someone's existence, but it's not the horizon that holds it.
Shot in various romanian traditional villages on Prahova Valley, the film explores the simple life of isolated villagers of all ages, throughout all four seasons.
