From the Archive

The segment “From the Archive” began to appear in the newsreel around early 1974, a year that marked the XI Congress of the Communist Party. After 24 years of existence, The Week in Pictures—the newsreel’s new name since 1968—developed a new consciousness of its own history as a “filmed chronicle” (a popular metaphor of the time to describe the newsreel), and began digging into its own archive to highlight the dramatic transformations Romania had undergone over the past few decades. Most of the subjects in this category follow a similar structure: they first provide context through archival footage from the early years of socialism, followed by contemporary footage on the same theme, filmed by the studio’s cinematographers in 1974.

This story looks back to the origins of the tractor industry in Brașov through a 1948 newsreel, which documents the transformation of the Aeronautical Construction Enterprise (IAR) in Brașov into a tractor factory. This is followed by a parallel montage of images from 1948 and 1974, accompanied by a rather predictable commentary on development, modernization, and technological progress. Some of the workers filmed in 1948 are still working in the factory in 1974: while this could have been an opportunity to add a personal touch to the story, the short length of the segment only allowed for a brief review of their names and portraits. (AB)