Lightweight cameras and dissident filmmakers: seminal case studies from 1968 to 1980 Romania

Memorability of Romanian dissidence: Ordinary people, secret files and artistic remediations

“…It is strongly associated with the young artists of the 1980s who attempted to create new representational strategies to depict a ‘heterogenous, fragmentary, and plural world’ (Cornis-Pope and Neubauer, 2004: 44), with various acts showing individuals’ critical, alternative, and independent ways of thinking in relation to the ideas and values imposed by the regime (Petrescu, 2018a). Such resistance was manifested through film, theatre, and, most importantly, literature (Modreanu, 2020; Virginás, 2021). Several subcultures that were created to circumvent the regime’s control proved to be fertile terrain for various forms of subversion.…”

“…While resistance acts resulted mainly from informal manifestations expressed through individuals’ behaviour (rather than from direct and explicit forms of opposition to the regime’s control and cultural codes), youth subcultures ‘offered a more collective (intentional) type of dissent’ (Mogoș and Berkers, 2018: 70) and were connected to common musical interests and shared ideas. The resistance acts were also explored in the world of filmmakers, and the individual character of resistance was again identified as dominating the scene (Virginás, 2021). The same conclusions extend to the satirical student groups that emerged in what was to be the last decade of communism.…”