Making Waves: 30 films, 30 years of post-Ceaușescu cinema at the Film Forum New York

     “In 2005, a 3-hour long black comedy about a dying man made history, reviving the Romanian cinema. The Death of Mr.Lăzărescu is one of the films that marked the birth of an artistic revolution, a movement that, on an international level, stirred an increasing interest in 

an exceptional generation of filmmakers.” Mihai Chirilov, the artistic director of Making Waves and co-curator, says. “It also stimulated the rediscovering of important films from the past, that offered a genealogy to the current that the critics named the New Romanian Cinema. In 1990, the directors who suddenly found themselves freed from the tyranny of the censorship, rushed to tell stories from their recent past. In the following two decades, the younger directors turned their interest towards the same past, but with a different approach, bringing a new perspective on the communist regime. Even when they were cold-bloodedly dissecting the present, the dark shadows of the past still crossed their stories, like some familiar ghosts. Nowadays, the enigma of the Revolution itself still needs solving and still begs an ending. The latest films dig deep in the same past, which is farther away, but which is as relevant, but there is also escapism, especially in genre films. Despite its apparent diversity, this vast retrospective is an excellent history lesson offered in the most agreeable way: the films.”
     “The Romanian cinema of the past 30 years are particularly relevant to the nowadays America.” David Schwartz, the founder of Cinema Projects and co-curator of the retrospective, says.” The films show you how the dramatic political changes a d the tensions between authoritarianism and democracy affect the society on a very intimate level. With a touch of humor and dramatic intuition, the Romanian films are extraordinary in terms of revealing the way in which politics affects the everyday life.”
     “These 30 Romanian films from the 30 years that passed since the fall of the communism that will be presented this year at the Film Forum, mark one cycle of creative freedom in the Romanian cinema”, Corina Șuteu, the president of the Making Waves Festival and co-curator, said. “This selection is unique and it offers the largest and most rigorous overview of more generations of talented directors from the post 1990 period. This is the least we can do to make sure that their creative voice is heard all over the world.”

     The film directors Andrei Ujică, Tudor Giurgiu and Constantin Popescu and the actor Andi Vasluianu, a Making Waves ambassador, will attend the screenings that will take place at the Film Forum New York.

     Over the years, this important film organization in New York, Film Forum, hosted the American premieres of some of the films of the retrospective – The Death of Mr. Lăzărescu, 12:08 East of Bucharest, Tuesday, After Christmas or The Child`s Pose – bringing its contribution to the encounter of the American audience with what will later be named the New Romanian Cinema and to its being acknowledged by the film critics.
     One selection of the retrospective will go on tour in USA, until May 2020. The program will start this winter, in California, at UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA), with a selection that will include 13 titles which will be screened from December 6, 2019 until February 27, 2020,

 followed by the Romanian Film Festival in Seattle (January – April 2020) and the

 Lightbox Film Center in Philadelphia (March 2020). The schedule of the retrospective in Cambridge, MA, Washington DC, Phoenix, Chicago, Los Angeles and other American cities will be announced in December.
     Like every year, at the 14th edition Making Waves will also present a selection of the best recent Romanian films, from December 5 to 10, at the Jacob Burns Film Center (Pleasantville, New York), the long-standing partner of the event. The program will be announced on November 11.

     The Romanians: 30 Years of Cinema Revolution is organized by the Making Waves Festival and Cinema Projects, produced by Corina