Collective workers reap the fruits of their labour

This December issue was the first issue of the newsreel produced under the institutional umbrella of the Sahia studio, which produced only one newsreel in its first year of activity (1950), after taking over the baton from the Romfilm Society. The story included here takes us to the village of Borș (Bihor) – specifically, the “Georghe Doja” collective holding (named after the Romanianised version of the name of the Székely/Hungarian Dózsa György, the organiser of the anti-feudal peasant uprisings of 1514, whose name was taken up by many GACs, especially in what would later become the Magyar Autonomous Region).
We see two families as they receive the produce they have earned as a result of their work for the village collective; later on, we follow them on their visit to the local department store (the outpost of modernisation in the village). As in other newsreel stories, the introduction of new forms of mass media into the rural domestic space – in this case the radio – becomes part of the wider narrative of modernisation.

As is standard for the newsreels of the 1950s, the alleged monologues of those filmed are embedded in the studio-recorded voice-over commentary. This approach is only partly due to the technological constraints of the time as regards audio recording in the field, and partly a reflection of the intention to curate the content of the testimonies recorded in the villages. While the voice of the commentator repeats words such as “abundance”, “pride”, “joy”, the image of the girl pioneer in too big shoes leaving the house on her way to the collective holding lingers. (AB)