Parents' Meeting

Parents' Meeting 1980

1

The Segalls’ interest in children’s lives dated from the mid-1960s, when, using a camera placed off-stage, they filmed the end of the year festivities at their daughter’s nursery. The result was Big Little Feelings, which won the Silver Dove at the Leipzig Festival in 1964. In the years that followed, the idea of including their own child in some of their films did not sit well with the political bureaucrats. In the end, she would only feature briefly in two short sequences at the end of this and another documentary, filmed eleven years later with the same children (The Feelings Have Grown, 1975). In both films, Doru Segall proudly makes clear that he is both the film’s cinematographer and the father of the girl in the image—a personal, autobiographic detail unusual for a Sahia film. Over the following years, the Segalls continued to work on documentaries about children, including Exams (1976), The High Schoolers (1978), Parents Meeting (1980), and The School Leavers (1986).

1980

The Hottest Day

The Hottest Day 1974

1

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.

1974

Lectii de Viață

Lectii de Viață 1970

1

Ohio riddler faces the emperor of Romania in the ultimate clash to see who will be sleeping with Ceaușescu

1970

Along the Frumoasa Valley

Along the Frumoasa Valley 1981

1

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.

1981

Tell Me a Poem

Tell Me a Poem 2025

6.00

A woman’s journey towards liberation and healing through recollections of her younger self.

2025

I Am Also Part of the Three Turns

I Am Also Part of the Three Turns 1970

1

A small town in Buzau province is affected by a destructive flood during the time of an aggressive nationalistic program of urbanization in Communist Romania.

1970

Ajde maestro

Ajde maestro 1970

1

Musical documentary essay on Romanians in the metro in Paris in December 2004.

1970

Phoenix: The Story

Phoenix: The Story 2022

10.00

The film celebrates the 50th anniversary of the legendary Romanian rock band Phoenix. It features interviews with key members like Nicolae Covaci, the band's founder, and Mircea Baniciu, one of its iconic voices. The documentary includes rare archival footage and offers a comprehensive look at the band's history, its impact on Romanian culture, and its journey through various political and cultural landscapes.

2022

Yes Mom, Your Son is Gay

Yes Mom, Your Son is Gay 2022

1

Before leaving for Paris to see his boyfriend, Daniel tells his mother that he is gay and that he has been in a relationship with him for almost a year.

2022

Surge of Transference

Surge of Transference 2024

1

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.

2024

Rehearsals for Peace

Rehearsals for Peace 2024

1

A tale from the 16th century narrates the story of Ursula, a female figure disguised as a man, who successfully chased away occupying intruders (at that time, the Ottomans) using the supersonic sound of a whip. This account purportedly originated in Cincu, the Transylvanian village which today houses one of N.A.T.O.’s key combat training zones in Romania.

2024

15

15 1970

1

1970

The Butterfly Collector

The Butterfly Collector 1970

1

"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.

1970

Păltinișul și Noica

Păltinișul și Noica 1970

1

Constantin Noica spent the last years of his life "1400 meters above humanity", as he liked to say - in Păltiniș. Far from the communist gray, but still kept under observation by the Securitate, the philosopher found in this place the joy of talking about wisdom. In the modest room on the 1st floor of Villa 12, what we know as the "Păltiniș School" was born.

1970

The Memory of the Moment

The Memory of the Moment 2023

1

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.

2023

The Trial

The Trial 2005

1

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

2005

The Boar with Silver Tusks

The Boar with Silver Tusks 1970

1

While hunting a mysterious boar, a man gets lost in the forest. He encounters increasingly strange things, and his life is put in danger.

1970