Screening & Talk: The Block (2016) by Maria Salaru

8th December 2016

8th December 2016
7:00 pm
RCC London
Free. Book your seat at bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk

Blocul (The Block) - Trailer from Maria Șalaru on Vimeo.


The Romanian Cultural Centre in London (RCC) invites you to the screening of Maria S̩alaru's documentary The Block/ Blocul (2016, 61 mins), on December 8th at 7:00 pm. This will be followed by a Q&A with Maria S̩alaru and Dr Inge Daniels (University of Oxford). 

Free. Book your seat at bookings@romanianculturalcentre.org.uk 

From neighbourly disputes over garlic-heavy cooking to memories of Ceaușescu’s heatless winters, Blocul explores the rich social and material universe of an apartment building in Piatra-Neamț, Romania. It follows the story of the block’s administrator, in his effort to mediate relationships between neighbours and maintain peace and order.

Shot as an observational documentary, The Block is a film about people’s homes and the spaces in between. In those spaces, the pipes don’t only carry hot water – they carry meaning from one inhabitant to the next.
Blocul/ The Block (2016, 61 mins)
Directed, written and produced by Maria Șalaru
Cinematography and sound by Maria Șalaru
Edited by Ileana Szasz.

During the event, we will be showcasing Adela Iacoban’s architecture montages illustrating the transformations of the façades of blocks of flats. The works highlight the transformations undergone by seven blocks of flats in Piatra Neamt, Romania, during the past 30 years. The façades bear witness not only to the material changes, but also to the complex system of social relationships inside the buildings.

Maria Șalaru is a PhD candidate in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford, currently finishing a research project about post-socialist changes in the urban environment in Piatra-Neamț, Romania. Maria graduated from University College Utrecht in 2011 with a degree in Anthropology and Philosophy, and from University of Oxford in 2012 a degree in Visual Anthropology.

Dr Inge Daniels is an Associate Professor in Social Anthropology at the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford. Her work focuses on the anthropological study of the material world. Her main field site is Japan where she has lived and worked for seven years and where she has conducted several long-term ethnographies. Her main research interests include economic anthropology, everyday religious practice and the anthropology of space and the built environment.

Adela Iacoban graduated from Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, in Bucharest. Her projects range from stage design to public space interventions and focus on analysing and exposing how social mechanisms shape and are shaped by the built environment.

A reception kindly sponsored by Deli Twist will follow the event.

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