Adina Bradeanu
I am a visual studies researcher with a background in modern languages and literatures, cinema, and political studies. Following work in the audio-visual archive of an ethnography museum in Bucharest (The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant), I researched the history and production culture of the only documentary studio of communist Romania (“Alexandru Sahia”). Since 2014, I have curated “VINTAGE SAHIA" (https://sahiavintage.ro), a digitisation and outreach project which produced a portfolio of digital research and teaching materials for secondary and tertiary education. In the recent years, I researched the interplay between memory and film practice, political violence and cinematic imagination, and the potential of ‘ephemeral’ films as sources for historical knowledge. I am interested in cultural heritage research and practice, particularly at the intersection with new technologies, and in collaborative projects between archives and universities.
Between 2018 and 2021 I was part of “ISTROX: the Istro-Romanian Language and the Oxford University Hurren Donation” (https://istrox.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/), a project based at the Linguistics Faculty of the University of Oxford. The project drew on a body of heritage audio and photo material donated to Taylor Institution Library (Bodleian Libraries, Oxford) and combined linguistic research with community-sourcing. I am also the Subject Consultant for Romanian Studies at Taylor Institution Library (Bodleian Libraries), University of Oxford.
Between 2018 and 2021 I was part of “ISTROX: the Istro-Romanian Language and the Oxford University Hurren Donation” (https://istrox.ling-phil.ox.ac.uk/), a project based at the Linguistics Faculty of the University of Oxford. The project drew on a body of heritage audio and photo material donated to Taylor Institution Library (Bodleian Libraries, Oxford) and combined linguistic research with community-sourcing. I am also the Subject Consultant for Romanian Studies at Taylor Institution Library (Bodleian Libraries), University of Oxford.
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Journal articles by Adina Bradeanu
By Ionuț Mareș.
Books by Adina Bradeanu
Conference Papers by Adina Bradeanu
In July 1959, Stalinist Romania was confronted with a criminal act which was also a rupture on the level of conventional historical imagination: a bank-heist. Performed by five men and one woman, all Jewish and all with previous connections with the state apparatus, the robbery of Romania’s National Bank was re-enacted one year later for the drama documentary RECONSTITUIREA / RECONSTRUCTION (Virgil Calotescu, 1960) – a film fully scripted by the Political Police, with re-enactments performed by the original protagonists of the event. Soon after the completion of the film, the male protagonists were sentenced to death and the woman to life in prison. Until today, five other films have been produced in Romania, Canada and the USA more or less ‘about’ the original event, each approaching it from a different perspective and spanning a variety of genres, including the political investigation the personal essay, and the feature comedy.
Drawing on the films and on the Securitate file of the case (the so-called ‘Ioanid case’, 27 vols., Romanian Secret Police Archives), I explore the ways in which cinematic imagination was, from the very beginning, part of the landscape described by the witnesses to the bank-heist, its long-lasting impact on Romania’s film history, and its significance for a better understanding of political violence at the end of the country’s so-called ‘obsessive decade’.
By Ionuț Mareș.
In July 1959, Stalinist Romania was confronted with a criminal act which was also a rupture on the level of conventional historical imagination: a bank-heist. Performed by five men and one woman, all Jewish and all with previous connections with the state apparatus, the robbery of Romania’s National Bank was re-enacted one year later for the drama documentary RECONSTITUIREA / RECONSTRUCTION (Virgil Calotescu, 1960) – a film fully scripted by the Political Police, with re-enactments performed by the original protagonists of the event. Soon after the completion of the film, the male protagonists were sentenced to death and the woman to life in prison. Until today, five other films have been produced in Romania, Canada and the USA more or less ‘about’ the original event, each approaching it from a different perspective and spanning a variety of genres, including the political investigation the personal essay, and the feature comedy.
Drawing on the films and on the Securitate file of the case (the so-called ‘Ioanid case’, 27 vols., Romanian Secret Police Archives), I explore the ways in which cinematic imagination was, from the very beginning, part of the landscape described by the witnesses to the bank-heist, its long-lasting impact on Romania’s film history, and its significance for a better understanding of political violence at the end of the country’s so-called ‘obsessive decade’.
This is the first time that the films produced by this film studio are made available on DVD, with English subtitles. Each DVD box includes a bi-lingual booklet (Romanian/English) which places the films in their historical context and in relation with the institutional culture of the studio.
The series is curated by Adina Bradeanu and produced by the One World Romania Association, Bucharest. It consists of five thematic DVDs, as follows:
'VINTAGE SAHIA I: Documentary, Ideology, Life' (released February 2015): The DVD box includes a DVD which comprises 8 short-documentaries with English subtitles, and a 32-page, bi-lingual booklet which features an introductory essay ('Documentary, ideology, life at the Alexandru Sahia Studio'), followed by film notes.
'VINTAGE SAHIA II: Work' (released March 2016): The DVD box includes a DVD which comprises 10 short-documentaries, with English subtitles, and a 36-page, bi-lingual booklet which features an introductory essay ('Work at the Alexandru Sahia documentary studio'), followed by film notes.
'VINTAGE SAHIA III: Children' (released February 2017): The DVD box includes a DVD which comprises 10 short documentaries + 1 bonus advert (1956-1986), with English subtitles, and a 41-page, bi-lingual booklet which features an introductory essay (Children and childhood in communist Romania), followed by film notes.
VINTAGE SAHIA IV: Political Commissioning (released March 2018): The DVD box includes a DVD which comprises 11 short documentaries + 1 bonus (1949-1981), with English subtitles, and a 41-page, bi-lingual booklet which features an introductory essay (Alexandru Sahia: The Memory of a Film Studio), followed by film notes.
VINTAGE SAHIA V: Ephemeral Films (released December 2018): The DVD box includes a DVD which comprises 9 short documentaries + 2 bonus adverts (1963-1984), with English subtitles, and a 41-page, bi-lingual booklet which features an introductory essay (Unseen, Unknown: The Ephemeral Films of the Alexandru Sahia Studio), followed by film notes.