Romanian Documentary Screening at Posmuș (Bistrița-Năsăud)
Daniel Iftene, lecturer at the Faculty of Theatre and Film and a member of the Screen Social research team, curated a screening of Romanian documentary feature and short films as part of the Castel Viu Summer School project (Posmuș, Bistrița-Năsăud). The event took place on August 3, 2024, inside the Teleki Castle, featuring films such as Roboțelul de aur (dir. Mihai Dragolea), Șaptezeci de oglinzi (dir. Patricia Toma), Sticla de apă (dir. Sonia Nagy), and Morning Routine (dir. Robert Kocsis). The screening was followed by discussions with the audience and the filmmakers.
The four selected films brought a wide range of topics back to the audience’s attention, from precariousness, poverty, dysfunctional relationships, and exploitation in the Romanian sports world, to resonating with the conflict in Ukraine and the preservation and transmission of intangible heritage in contemporary Romanian villages. During the summer school, our colleague also contributed to the development of two short films and a photography exhibition created by the children selected for the film workshops.
Daniel Iftene at MiniTIFF 2024
Daniel Iftene, lecturer at the Faculty of Theatre and Film and a member of the Screen Social research team, took part in the 23rd edition of the Transilvania International Film Festival (June 14-24, 2024) as part of the miniTIFF initiative, the film education program for students.
Throughout the festival, he held meetings with the audience, composed of students and adults, moderating discussions with directors and film crews of selected films, and analyzing the films alongside young viewers. One of the meetings focused on Ana Maria Comănescu’s latest film, Horia, and discussed the portrayal of adolescence in contemporary Romanian cinema. The meeting with the audience took place at the Dacia Cinema in Cluj-Napoca.
Constantin Pârvulescu invited by the University of Oviedo, Spain
In September 2024, Constantin Pârvulescu was the guest of the University of Oviedo, Spain, and Catedra de Cine of Aviles. While doing research there and finishing the book manuscript Romanian Capitalism on Screen, Pârvulescu interacted with the local academic community and presented the research results of Screen Social.
Prelegere despre imaginea adolescenței în filmul românesc, la Liceul Teoretic „Nicolae Bălcescu”
May 10, 2024
Elevii Liceului Teoretic „Nicolae Bălcescu” din Cluj-Napoca au participat luni, 22 aprilie 2024, la o prelegere interactivă cu tema „Adolescența în filmul românesc contemporan”, susținută de lect.dr. Daniel Iftene, cercetător în cadrul proiectului „Screen-Social: Ecranizarea transformărilor sociale românești, 1990-2021”.
Pornind de la fragmente din filme românești recente care au ca personaje centrale adolescenți și adolescente (Cea mai fericită fată din lume – r. Radu Jude, Lumea e a mea – r. Nicolae Constantin Tănase, Toto și surorile lui – r. Alexander Nanau, Otto Barbarul – r. Ruxandra Ghițescu etc.), elevii coordonați de prof. Emilia Borza au discutat despre narațiunile despre adolescență și maturizare din filmul românesc și despre imaginile recurente folosite de autorii români de film pentru a discuta despre provocările adolescenților în România contemporană.
Evenimentul a făcut parte din activitățile Săptămânii altfel de la Liceul Teoretic „Nicolae Bălcescu”.
Camil Ungureanu at the Center of Excellence in Study of Image
April 24, 2024
On the 12th of April, 2024, Camil Ungureanu, our research project’s team member, delivered two wonderful presentations at the Center of Excellence in Study of Image (CESI), University of Bucharest, with the following titles: Film, genre and postcolonialism: “La Noire de…” by Sembene Ousmane and Kafka in the Balkans: Before the Law, nihilism, and crisis in Cristi Puiu’s films “Aurora” and “Malmkrog.” From the perspective of our project, it is important to highlight how in the latter Ungureanu dissected the key interpretations and criticisms of the analyzed films. As he argued, “Aurora” adeptly foreshadows the crisis of masculinity, which lies at the heart of the contemporary resurgence of neo-authoritarianism, while “Malmkrog” – by revisiting Vladimir Solovyov’s final writings – becomes a vital exploration of political and spiritual themes surrounding concepts of evil, progress, and mortality.
Seminar on communist and post-communist societies in film and live performance
February 26, 2024
On March 27th at 6:30 PM (Madrid Time), the IAB – Institute of the Arts Barcelona will host a compelling seminar/roundtable, “Stalinism, Communism, and Post-Communism in History and Performance”. Distinguished speakers include: Gianluca Fantoni, Senior Lecturer in Modern History at Nottingham Trent University, UK, known for his expertise in fascism, communism, and cinema (among his notable works; “Italy Through the Red Lens: Italian Politics and Society in Communist Propaganda Films (1946–79)”, Palgrave Macmillan in 2021); Cosmin Chivu, Associate Professor and Director of the Actors Drama School at PACE University, New York, USA, and part of the Sibiu Performing Arts Market; and Armando Rotondi, Professor in Performance Theory at the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, Spain, and researcher involved in the “Screen-Social: Screening Romanian Social Transformations, 1990-2021” project at Babeș-Bolyai University, Romania.
The seminar delves into the relationships between communist and post-communist societies, exploring their impact on and representation in cinematic and live performances in Eastern European countries. Organized by Armando Rotondi, the event aligns with the “Screen-Social: Screening Romanian Social Transformations, 1990-2021” Project at Babeș-Bolyai University, and is linked to the rehearsal process of “How to Explain the History of Communism to Mental Patients” by Matei Vişniec directed by Cosmin Chivu at the IAB. Additionally, this forms part of the “Digital (Emergency and Performance)” webinar series under the MA Programme in Creative Performance Practice at the IAB.
Bogdan Popa at the University of Poznan
January 17, 2024
Bogdan Popa, our research project’s team member, gave a talk with the title “Desire as the future of sexuality: Possibilities and Impasses in Romanian Cinema” at the University of Poznan, Poland (UAM, Poznan) on the 16th of January 2024. Bogdan discussed the role of the psychoanalytic real in two Romanian films (“Poppy field, Eugen Jebeleanu and “Illegitim”, Adrian Sitaru) and possibilities for non-normative sexuality in future film productions. He argued that a starting concern to see sexuality in connection to broader questions of political economy, such as exploitation in capitalism, would lead to a popular cinema.
HBO vs. Netflix
Professor, producer and former COO for Central Europe and EVP Affiliate Sales, HBO Europe, Ondrej Zach was this week’s guest at the Screen Social Research Project.
The discussion focused on HBO Europe’s diminishing production ambitions. Zach referred to the switch in brand values that took place in the VOD market once Netflix entered the competition and the lack of reaction from HBO. He argued that the core values of the VOD field changed from quality, unicity and exclusivity to two major ones, volume and immediacy imposed by Netflix. Zach argued that one of the reasons is that the latter is a tech platform, being able to develop an efficient digital service for its customers. An example is the “recommendation category”. Another important strategy of Netflix is the release of multiple episodes of a series at once. PhD student Boglarka-Angela Farkas came up with an important argument regarding Netflix’s production strategy, namely the negative impact of short term contracts in the film industry for producing a high volume of productions in a short period of time.
Prelegere Reprezentări ale minorităților etnice în filmul românesc contemporan
Lect.dr. Daniel Iftene va susține o prelegere publică pe tema Reprezentări ale minorităților etnice în filmul românesc contemporan, ca parte a proiectului de cercetare ‘Screen-Social: Screening Romanian Social Transformations, 1990-2021’, (PN-III-P4-PCE-2021-0141). Evenimentul va avea loc luni, 11 decembrie, de la ora 18.00, în Sala Cinema a Facultății de Teatru și Film (str. Mihail Kogălniceanu, nr. 4, mansardă).
Pornind de la fragmente din filme de ficțiune lansate după 1990, prelegerea va panorama modalitățile de reprezentare a minorității și construcția ideologică a discursului despre diversitate etnică și multiculturalism.
Evenimentul este deschis publicului larg și este organizat în colaborare cu Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies din cadrul Facultății de Teatru și Film a Universității Babeș-Bolyai.
On independent filmmaking in Romania
November 23, 2023
Independent film director and assistant professor at the Faculty of Theatre and Film Babeș-Bolyai Ion Indolean was this week’s guest at the Screen Social Research Project.
The lecture focused on independent film production and distribution in Romania. Indolean, who directed “Discordia” (2016) and “Toni and his friends” (2020), lectured on what it means to be an independent director in Romania, what are the ups and downs of the profession. He also made recommendations on how to deal with issues that might occur in the preproduction, production, sources of funding, the minimum budget needed for producing a movie, post-production, festival participation and distribution of films. Indolean also presented his two ongoing projects, the documentary “The Last Line” and the fiction movie “99”. Even though the challenges in producing and distributing an independent movie in Romania are significant, Ion Indolean concluded that being an independent director in Romania is only possible with a great deal of passion.
International conference: Screening Social and Economic Transformations in East-Central Europe: Film and Television as Writers and Rewriters of post-1989 History
November 14, 2023
Our research project’s international conference took place on the 10th and 11th of November, 2023, at the Faculty of Theatre and Film of Babeș-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). The event was organized by Constantin Pârvulescu, our research project’s team leader and by Bogdan Popa, a team member of our project, with the support of the Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies and the Faculty of Theatre and Film.
During the days of the conference, film study scholars gathered from all over East-Central Europe – having presenters from Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, among others – to reflect on national and transnational tendencies regarding the social and economic transformations of post-1989 history and how these phenomena are continuously articulated in national films and TV series.
We are also very glad that multiple team members from our research group (Screening Romanian Social Transformations) presented their papers related to Romanian cinema:
- Claudiu Turcuș, Cinema and Media, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca: Can the East Speak? Screening Economic Migration in Fixeur (Adrian Sitaru, 2016) and Lemonade (Ioana Uricaru, 2018).
- Bogdan Popa, Literature and Cultural Studies, Transilvania University, Brașov: Montage and Capitalism: Our Improved Formula (Solomon, 2010) and Do not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Jude 2023).
- Camil Ungureanu: Political Science, Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona: Post-Communism, Social Antagonism, and Evil: A Spiritual Turn in Cristi Puiu’s Cinema?
We would like to thank everyone for their fascinating presentations and energetic discussions, and shout-out to the assisting film students and to Raul Ștef, who was the photographer of the event. We really hope that everyone enjoyed these days in Cluj and we look forward to meet you again!
Lectures and Workshops with Ingrid Lewis
This is a series of events featuring Ingrid Lewis from the Dundalk Institute of Technology. She is an associate professor with the Department of Creative Arts, Media and Music.
The schedule includes lectures on ”An Introduction to Iranian Cinema”, ”Women in European Holocaust Cinema: A Complex Representational Pathway” and a graduate student mentoring session.
The events are organized under the Erasmus program and hosted by the Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies affiliated with the Faculty of Theater and Film at Babeș-Bolyai University.
Claudiu Turcuș at ”Post-Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition” in Tallinn
October 5, 2023
Photo credits: Tallinn University
Our researcher Claudiu Turcuș, Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Theatre and Television, presented his work ”Westalgia and the Orphanage of Communism in post-1989 Romanian fictional narratives” at the international conference ”Post-Socialist Memory Cultures in Transition” organized by the Tallinn University in Estonia between 20-23 September.
His research continues the work of writer and cultural critic Boris Buden on repressive infantilization of former communist societies, and of professor’s Nataša Kovačević concept of “self-colonizing tendency”. The work of Claudiu Turcuș addressed the post-communist fictional portrayal of communist childhood and proposed the concept of Westalgia. The concept describes that the protagonists or children-narrators from post-1989 literary texts and films do not present a longing for communism per se, but rather a desire for a Western world which, however, remains distant and acts as a set against the backdrop of Soviet-inspired totalitarianism.
Alexandru Matei in the team of Télé\Visées
October 5, 2023
Our research project’s team member, Alexandru Matei, has been invited by professor Céline Ségur (University of Lorraine, France) to participate as a member in the official constitution of the French-speaking television studies network Télé\Visées, on 12-13 October, in Paris.
The Télé\Visées network was created in January 2023, on the initiative of a steering committee. Currently, the network has almost 130 members – researchers at various stages of their academic careers – representing 8 disciplines and 12 French-speaking countries. The network aims to:
- Bring together researchers who contribute to the advancement of television studies and the development of such studies;
- provide a forum for dialogue and promotion of the multiple approaches that characterise this field of research;
- encourage the continuation and consolidation of television research, while defining the boundaries of the field at a time of expanding audiovisual and digital offerings.
Armando Rotondi at the Piatra Neamț Theatre Festival
September 12, 2023
Our Researcher Armando Rotondi has been a guest of director and writer Gianina Cărbunariu, at the Teatrul Tineretului that she leads in Piatra Neamț, during the Piatra Neamț Theatre Festival. In one of his article for Screening Social Changes, Armando Rotondi is focusing on re-enactment in Romanian performance, looking at Radu Jude’s adaptation of Gianina Cărbunariu’s Tipografic Majuscul, in the perspective of documentary dramaturgy and archive-footage film.
Photo credits: Marius Șumlea for Teatrul Tineretului
Publication in the journal Philosophy & Social Criticism
July 26, 2023
Our research project’s team member, Camil Ungureanu, published an article in the fully peer-reviewed international journal, Philosophy & Social Criticism, with the following title: The ‘mystical’ foundation of democratic society, mythmaking and truth in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (John Ford 1962).
The abstract of the article is available on the following link.
Lecture on Romanian cinema at CEU’s Summer University
July 25, 2023
Our research project’s team member, Camil Ungureanu, presented a lecture at CEU’s Summer University, at a course called It Takes a Movement: Social Mobilization and Rebuilding Democracy (Budapest, July 3 – July 9, 2023).
The lecture was presented on the 3rd of July with the following title: The Revolution Born Around a Swear: Carnival Populism, Humor, and Social Mobilization in Romania.
”Remediations of Holocaust and Communist Trauma in the 21st Century” by Arleen Ionescu
The Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies, associated with the Faculty of Theatre and Film, organizes the event. Professor Arleen Ionescu is affiliated with Shanghai Jiao Tong University and is a STAR UBB International Research Fellow.
Screen Social at NECS Oslo, 2023
June 25, 2023
Members of the Screen Social project, Constantin Parvulescu, Camil Ungureanu, Lucian Țion, and Armando Rotondi, presented their research in a special panel at the NECS conference in Oslo on June 16, 2023.
The panel was titled Cinema and the Emotional Orders of Emergent Forms Capitalism.
Men of Deeds – a sociological reading at the intersection of cinematic currents
June 7, 2023
Our research project’s team member, Lucian-Cristian Țion, published an article in the Romanian cultural magazine, Observator Cultural, about Paul Negoescu’s latest film, Men of Deeds (Oameni de treabă, 2022). The article – written in Romanian – is available on the following link.
Romanian Economic and Cultural History on Film
May 22, 2023
Our research project’s team leader, Constantin Pârvulescu, presented his research related to Screening Social Transformations (1990-2021) at Miguel Hernandes University of Elche on May 19, 2023. The focus of his presentation was the economic historical testimony of Romanian film of the twenty-first century.
Online Q&A event with Constantin Pârvulescu at Barcelona’s Institute of Arts
May 2, 2023
Our research project’s team leader, Constantin Pârvulescu, will join an online Q&A event at Barcelona’s Institute of the Arts on the 4th of May to discuss the team’s research project, Screening Social Transformations (1990-2021).
Find out more below:
Screening Romanian Social Transformation panel at the Capitalist Transformations in Romania international conference
March 25, 2023
Lucian Țion, Alexandru Matei, Bogdan Popa and Daniel Iftene presented their research in the recent online conference Transformări capitaliste în România: dezvoltare inegală și decalaje sociale (Capitalist Transformations in Romania: Uneven Progress and Social Disparities), on March 24.
The panel titled Filmul românesc și reprezentarea transformărilor sociale capitaliste (Representing Capitalist Social Changes in the Romanian Cinema) was moderated by Claudiu Turcuș and was developed through the Screening Romanian Social Transformation (1990-2021) research project.
Jan Hanzlik lectured about European film distribution at the Faculty of Theater and Film (BBU)
March 23, 2023
Jan Hanzlik, PhD, will conference about contemporary European film distribution at the Faculty of Theater and Film (Babeș-Bolyai University). Based on researching the Czech theatrical and online film distribution process, he will approach the main changes during the post-pandemic era.
Jan Hanzlik is one of the top researchers and academics in Europe that focuses the various film distribution practices. He is affiliated to the Prague School of Economics and his work has been published by Studies in Eastern European Cinema, Iluminace or Studia Politica.
The event is organized by the Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies and the Faculty of Theater and Film (Babeș-Bolyai University), as part of the Screening Romanian Social Transformation (1990-2021) research project.
Screening Romanian Social Transformation panel at the Capitalist Transformations in Romania international conference
March 20, 2023
Lucian Țion, Alexandru Matei, Bogdan Popa and Daniel Iftene will be presenting their recent research in the upcoming online conference Transformări capitaliste în România: dezvoltare inegală și decalaje sociale (Capitalist Transformations in Romania: Uneven Progress and Social Disparities), on March 24.
The panel titled Filmul românesc și reprezentarea transformărilor sociale capitaliste (Representing Capitalist Social Changes in the Romanian Cinema) will be moderated by Claudiu Turcuș and was developed through the Screening Romanian Social Transformation (1990-2021) research project.
The four lectures will unfold the following topics: the intergenerational conflict and toxic relations in the New Romanian Cinema (Lucian Țion), the social mythology of the Romanian TV series (Alexandru Matei), class and social disparities in contemporary film (Bogdan Popa), and representing ethnic minorities in the post-1990 local cinema (Daniel Iftene).
You can find more info on the event on the conference’s website (http://www.transformari-capitaliste.ro) or Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/events/218036070756239). Attendance is free of charge, but participants must register here: https://forms.gle/mgh2shXXwNWiCXMw9.
The conference is organized by the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work and the Faculty for European Studies at Babeș-Bolyai University.
Armando Rotondi lectures at Babeș-Bolyai University
March 7, 2023
Armando Rotondi was invited for to lecture at the Theater and Film Faculty of Babeș-Bolyai University, on March 7th, 2023. Students and fellow academics attended the two lectures, one on theater (Translating, Adapting, Tradapting between Text, Dramaturgy and Staging) and another one on film (De-Artialization and Centriphery in Romanian Cinema: Filming Spaces/Screening Social Changes in Selected Case Studies).
The event was organized by the Janovics Center for Screen and Performing Arts Studies and the Faculty of Theater and Film (Babeș-Bolyai University), as part of the Screening Romanian Social Transformation (1990-2021) research project.
Armando Rotondi is Professor in Performance Theory and Storytelling, and Leader of the MA Creative Performance Practice at the IAB – Institute of the Arts Barcelona (validated by Liverpool John Moores University).
