If cities and the environment we live in have always been changing, the speed at which it is happening now is unprecedented. As a reflection on what is happening, but also a call to action, the theme chosen for this year’s edition of UrbanEye Film Festival is Transform. The organizers question who do cities belong to and who can still live in them and they propose films that investigate the transformations brought on by gentrification, tourism or migration.
Other sections of the festival focus on the need to preserve recent architectural heritage, portraits of architects and artists, and a special section is dedicated to archive films about Bucharest.
In addition to the films presented in the festival, UrbanEye proposes this year several guided tours of heritage buildings not currently on the cultural circuit of Bucharest, as well as events for children and young people: urban exploration workshops through film, film workshops for high school students and a children’s show.
100 YEARS OF WALKING AROUND BUCHAREST IN 21 FILMS
UrbanEye Film Festival presents 100 years of walking around Bucharest in 21 archive films. The retrospective curated by Ana Szel and Andrei Rus will run from 10-13 November at Apollo111 and Cinema Elvire Popesco.
‘Through fiction films, montage documentaries, essay-movies, newsreels, choreographic films, experimental films that have Bucharest at their centre, the five programmes try not only to restore a city in a continuous process of change, depending on the policies of the successive regimes in power, but also different facets of it, as they have been reflected, over time, through the visions of more or less well-known filmmakers.‘ – Ana Szel and Andrei Rus
The festival invites you to discover the memory of the city, its architectural heritage and its cultural landscape, offering a rare opportunity to visit heritage houses that are not normally on the cultural circuit of Bucharest: the Știrbey-Rosetti House, the Niculescu-Dorobanți House and the Mathilda Villa. (The tours are free and have a limited number of places. They are offered on a first-come, first-served basis in the form here.)
Babar’s story is about the little elephant who, forced by circumstances, arrives in the city. Here he discovers himself, discovers the joys of life and returns to his childhood home with a wealth of experience and knowledge.
For this UrbanEye Film Festival presentation, the story of little Babar is adapted to the local context, and children will discover details about Bucharest. The story of Babar, the little elephant will take shape both through the dialogue between the actor who interprets the story written by Cécile de Brunhoff, the piano and the animation, and by inviting children to a dialogue aimed at arousing their curiosity for the city they live in.
(The show will take place on the 12th and the 13th of November at 11:00 AM at the OAR headquarters at 19 Pictor Verona Street. As the number of places is limited, parents are invited to wait for their children in the adjoining room or in the café in the courtyard of the OAR Garden. Tickets: 10 ron. Tickets can be purchased here)
The screenings programme can be found here
The movies will run at Apollo111 and Cinema Elvire Popesco
Tickets and details on www.urbaneye.ro
