On Saturday, November 9, the Sahia Vintage platform was launched online! The films are available on the website SahiaVintage.ro.

Sahia Vintage is a project by the One World Romania association and curated by Adina Brădeanu. The project started in 2013 with the purpose of bringing the archive cinema and film heritage of the Alexandru Sahia studio (1950-1990) to the public’s attention, and since then, the films of the studio have been presented to the public at the editions of the One World Romania festival.

Since 2014, the production of the SAHIA VINTAGE DVD series has been initiated, five DVDs with themes such as childhood, work and life during socialist Romania, political order and political documentary film, but also the “ephemeral” production of the studio – educational films, promotional materials ordered by the state institutions, commercial films.

Since 2016, the Sahia films have started to reach the general public, from the festival to the high schools, districts in Bucharest and the provincial area. Screenings are followed by Q&A sessions.

Among the films presented are: Where I Was and The Places I Wandered (dir. Laurențiu Damian), Cazul ‘D’ (dir. Alexandru Boiangiu), Cei mici despre lumea mare (dir. Gabriel Barta), For Our Grandchildren Something Else About Bucharest (dir. Paula and Doru Segall), The Eyes of My City (dir. Virgil Calotescu) and many others.

Starting with the digitization of movies produced on film and released in VHS format and their conversion into DVD format, the Sahia Vintage project team takes the next step, launching the films in a new format, digital and online, on an internationally accessible platform.

The website includes, besides films, information on the studio, on its history and the context in which it appeared, on the filmmakers who worked at Alexandru Sahia, as well as on the team behind the Sahia Vintage project. The films can be found by accessing this link and are grouped into three categories “chronology”, “places” and “words”.

Also, tonight and tomorrow, November 12, will be the last two events in the Memoria Arhivelor program.

Today at Sala Albastră, UNATC, from 7 pm you can watch Our Holy War (dir. Ion Cantacuzino), documentary used as an inspiration for The Dead Nation and I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (dir. Radu Jude). The screening will be followed by a dialogue between Radu Jude and Adrian Cioflâncă.

Tuesday, November 12, at room 52 of UNArte, also from 7 pm the public will have the chance to watch Vizita conducătorilor de partid și de stat în regiunea București (dir. Pantelie Tuțuleasa), documentary used in the making of The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu (dir. Andrei Ujică, editing Dana Bunescu). The screening will be followed by a dialogue between Dana Bunescu and Cristian Vasile.

The launch of the platform took place on Saturday, November 9, at the Humanitas Cișmigiu bookstore, as part of the Memoria Arhivelor series of events, initiated by One World Romania. The event was attended by a part of the project team, as well as Adina Brădeanu. It included discussions on the preservation and recovery of archives and implicitly of cultural memory in Romania.

To access the Sahia Vintage archive, go here.

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.