News Stories

This is a multi-topic feature composed of four sub-topics. First, there are two brief reports: one from the wheat harvest in Dobrogea, and the other from Reșița, with images that evoke the industrial documentaries produced by the studio in the 1960s and 1970s. The third report shifts focus to a more vibrant depiction of Romania, celebrating its national cinema industry and positioning itself to welcome an increasing wave of international tourism.

In the early 1960s, Romania began to attract the attention of the international press following campaigns launched by the Romanian Tourism Office (ONT) with the aim of attracting foreign tourism. Among the strategies employed were invitations extended to international media and press editors, offering guided tours of Romania as a means of gaining coverage. This may very well be the case here, as two British tourists filmed at the Băneasa restaurant, who respond politely to questions from a Romanian reporter (who speaks with a rather horrendous British accent), are working for British media organizations. Based on their answers, we can infer that they had already visited the Danube Delta, Poiana Brașov, and the Black Sea coast.

The fourth report, filmed on the Black Sea Coast, covers briefly the awards ceremony of the Mamaia Film Festival from June 1964 – possibly because one of the winners of the Best Actress award for her performance in the film Tudor (Lucian Bratu, 1964), was Lica Gheorghiu, the daughter of President Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej.

As is often the case, not much attention was given to the documentary film section of the festival. While it is mentioned that the jury awarded nine prizes to short documentary films, no filmmakers or film titles are identified. Until around the year 2000, documentary films in Romania were typically short films, rather than medium or feature-length productions. As a result, the “short film” award category was effectively an award for documentary films. (AB)