NY Romanian Film Festival “The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution”

“For its 2019 edition, Making Waves celebrates the 30 years since the Revolution of 1989 with a comprehensive 30-Film Retrospective of Romanian Cinema of the Past 30 Years, the largest Romanian film program presented in the U.S. to date. The program will run at Film Forum in New York City from November 15-26, 2019. A selection of the retrospective will tour throughout the U.S. through May 2020.  The line up of the festival is posted here:  https://makingwaves.filmetc.org/schedule/films/.

Back in 2005, a three hour-long black comedy about a dying man made history by resurrecting Romanian cinema. The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu was part of the birth of an artistic revolution that ignited an ever-growing international interest in an outstanding generation of filmmakers. It also triggered the rediscovery of past highlights which offered a genealogy for what critics came to call the Romanian New Wave.

Spanning the 30 years since the 1989 Romanian Revolution and the fall of Communism, this comprehensive showcase presents 30 representative titles from the recent history of Romanian cinema. Naturally, history is the running theme in most films. In the 1990s, directors who found themselves freed from the tyranny of censorship rushed out in the open to tell stories from the recent past. In the following two decades, younger directors went back in time on their own terms and came up with a fresh perspective on the communist era. Even when they chronicled the present in sharp slices of life, the dark shadows of the past still permeated their contemporary stories, like familiar ghosts. And then there is the enigma of the Revolution itself, which continues to beg for closure.

Newer films dig into the more distant though equally relevant past, and there is also escapism, mostly in genre formats. But despite its apparent diversity, this vast retrospective works best as a history lesson served in the most entertaining form: movies.”

The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution
A retrospective initiated by the Making Waves Film Festival & Cinema Projects
Originated at Film Forum New York (Nov 2019) and touring throughout the U.S.
Produced by Corina Șuteu and Oana Radu
Curated by Mihai Chirilov, Corina Șuteu, and David Schwartz (Cinema Projects)
With the support of the Trust for Mutual Understanding, Romanian Filmmakers Union, Dacin Sara, the Romanian National Film Center, Blue Heron Foundation and numerous individual donors
Film notes: Mihai Chirilov/David Schwartz