Working in socialist Bucharest – Archive Movies

How and where did the people of Bucharest live during the socialist period? What did their jobs look like? And where did they have fun and relax? Through the 27 archive films contained in the three thematic molds of the program, we aim to explore as many facets as possible of possible answers to these questions.

Working in socialist Bucharest is a program that includes 10 films that touch on the subject of the workplace and the capital’s industries in socialist times. The program has a total duration of 108 minutes and will be screened as part of UrbanEye’s 10th edition: Where to?, on Thursday, November 9, from 18:00 at Cinema Elvire Popesco. Screening followed by a discussion about the content of the program.

The program includes documentaries, commercials and utility films made between 1959 and 1986, most of them being produced by the “Alexandru Sahia” Studio, the institution most active in making such cinematographic projects in socialist Romania. Their themes are extremely varied and capture many issues relevant to the urban concerns of their era, from the construction project of the capital’s subway lines to the modernization and development of the city’s sewage system to the construction plans of blocks of flats and up to the translation of entire buildings through a unique technical procedure.

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1. The Bucharest Metro (1981, David Reu)

10 minutes

A monograph of the Bucharest metro after three years of operation, the documentary directed by David Reu follows the construction work of this means of urban transport from the design phase to its commissioning in December 1979. Beyond the tone, almost indispensable in the production non-fiction of the ninth decade, which conforms to the line of political propaganda, the film describes in impressive images the underground construction site with wide galleries that double the main traffic arteries and that connect the newly inaugurated stations on the Timpuri Noi – Semănătoarea section. These “underground palaces” of Bucharest, which at that time shone impeccably, provide the daily transport of tens of thousands of people.

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2. The Factory (1963, Slavomir Popovici)

17 minutes

One of the most famous Romanian documentaries of its era, “The Factory” seems strongly influenced by the experimental audio-visual constructions of the Soviet avant-garde movement of the 1920s. Putting together all kinds of fragments and motifs relevant to the everyday life of the working class from the first communist decades, the film creates a collage in which individual examples merge with the lyrical description, marked by formal constructivist accents, of the reality of modern socialist factories.

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3. Dâmbovița and Bucharest (1980, Alexandru Sârbu)

10 minutes

Having a didactic function, this useful film describes the route of Bucharest’s drinking water supply, whose main source, the Dâmbovița River, is followed in wide panoramas and with the help of animated graphics, from the springs in the Iezer Mountains to the discharge into the Argeș River . Aspects are presented related to the hydrographic infrastructure built to prevent flooding in the capital (the last overflow of such proportions occurred in 1975) and the discharge of waste water, important issues for a city like Bucharest, which was then and now, continuously growing.

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4. Tanneries (1963, Mirel Ilieșiu)

11 minutes

An illustration of the evolution of the condition of workers in the communist era, compared to the interwar period, using as a pretext a recently modernized factory in Jilava, presented in mirror image with the one described in a 1934 report by Geo Bogza, “Tanneries” is a more complex cinematic construction and more discreet than the simplistic past-present antithesis, so important in the economy of Marxist propaganda art, might suggest.

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5. Elements of ergonomics in the work of builders (1974, Aurel Miheleș)

8 minutes

Commissioned by the Ministry of Constructions in order to train workers who work on industrial sites, this utility film produced by the “Bucuresti” cinematography studio has as its central theme ergonomics, a discipline that deals with the psycho-physiological understanding of work processes in order to optimize the production flow in the system industrial, obtaining an optimal yield and at the same time eliminating the risk of injury to workers. “Elements of ergonomics in the work of builders” is therefore a study in the Stahanovist, but also Taylorist spirit of the various types of physical demands to which construction workers are subjected in order to standardize and make their efforts more efficient.

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6. Let the summer pass (1972, Florica Holban)

11 minutes

One of the strongest pleas for a normalized society, “Let the summer pass” presents young men and women who, through the activities they carry out, break out of the legal framework established by the socialist state. Some of them are understood to be doing various illegal jobs, others are not working at all, and some of the protagonists are sex workers, insisting for several minutes on their life stories. Despite the undignified situation in which these protagonists are placed, some today seem more like prototypes of rebels without a cause. A young man’s response, in which he mocks those who do not know who Jimi Hendrix is, makes him more likeable and relatable today, although it causes the narrator a vehement reaction of rejection. You want to know who is hiding in that sinister penumbra constructed by the filmmakers, seek them out and take them out for a beer.

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7. When beauty is useful (1968, Alexandru Sârbu)

10 minutes

“When beauty is useful” is a documentary about the aesthetics of new industrial spaces, designed according to modern standards that aim to improve working conditions, thus contributing to an increase in productivity. This concern for better lighting, for the judicious and ergonomic organization of production spaces is illustrated by a series of eloquent examples: a space filmed before and after the renovation and reorganization of the work premises or an experiment related to the psychology of colors. The film offers a new look at the functionalist aesthetics of industrial spaces, the plasticity of outdoor spaces and factory premises are highlighted and recently built factories, as well as the futuristic design of new steel, food or chemical industries.

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8. The technique of serving breakfast (1972, Lupu Gutman)

10 minutes

A summer morning on a sunny terrace is the backdrop for the breakfast demonstration in this educational film for catering employees. Standardized utensils and accessories for the several culinary variations of the menu are explained in detail, as well as serving and disposal arrangements and techniques.

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9. Liability for quality (1984, Ada Pistiner)

11 minutes

“Liability for Quality” presents various examples of situations where objects of all kinds – from shoes and socks to teapots and other china – are either carelessly made, have manufacturing defects, or are, to all appearances, the unsightly result of a gimcrack production. The criticism is incisive, and the voice of the reporter who captures the workers and merchants during working hours does not condone any errors and does not accept any lazy explanations for the shortcomings of the products they make or sell.

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10. Our house on wheels (1984, Alexandru Boiangiu)

10 minutes

As part of the works to systematize the Ștefan cel Mare artery, in addition to replacing some dilapidated houses with new and spacious blocks, the engineers are experimenting with a novel procedure, of transferring on wheels a group of buildings that do not harmonize with the rest of the housing complex . The film describes in detail the technique of transferring real estate, pointing out the uniqueness of the process internationally.

Full duration of the program: 108 minutes

Program and curatorial texts by Ana Szel and Andrei Rus.