Events

Discovering the city through film. UrbanEye

DISCOVERING THE CITY THROUGH FILM.
URBANEYE
Text: Monica SEBESTYÉN
Photos: Georgiana GÎRBOAN and Miluță FLUERAȘ

UrbanEye talks about the city and urban life through film. The festival takes place every year in November in Bucharest and is the only event of its kind in Romania to address this theme. UrbanEye's films and events discuss issues related to urban life and give the public the opportunity to discover or deepen new ideas and approaches to it.

The idea

The city and cinema have been closely linked ever since the advent of film, which captured the fascination of the modern city. The city can be both a setting and a ubiquitous subject on the big screen.
In recent years, the production of films has been on the rise, with a growing interest in architectural and urban themes. Thus, the emergence of architectural film festivals was natural. While the first such festival was initiated in Rotterdam in 2000, there are now more than 30 such events worldwide. Since the very first UrbanEye, we have enjoyed our partnership with these festivals, having invited their representatives from Rotterdam, Lisbon, Budapest, Copenhagen, London.

The first edition of the UrbanEye Film Festival took place in 2014 in Bucharest. The idea of initiating such an event started from the desire to discuss and detail through different perspectives a topic that influences us all, the CITY. In order to know the responsibilities and rights that derive from belonging to the city and for a more active involvement in specific urban issues, we consider it essential to know and understand this subject from all aspects.
Since the very first edition, we have been keen to have discussions with the public in addition to the films we select, and to bring them together with people from various fields of interest, from film directors, architects, designers, journalists or specialists in fields relevant to the films we are following. The festival is about communities, about participation, about how we can live together in urban environments.
The project was initiated with much enthusiasm by a group of old friends and colleagues at the University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu" (Cătălina Ioniță, Mihai Alexandru, Irina Florea and Monica Sebestyén). Cătălina Ioniță (1982-2015) and Mihai Alexandru (1981-2015) are no longer with us, but they continue to inspire us, and the main directions set with them are still being followed. The team, without which this festival could not exist, has continued to grow, each contributing their own knowledge in the fields in which they specialized: architecture, urbanism, cinematography, management, communication, design.

Movies and events

At UrbanEye, spectators have the opportunity to see documentary and fiction films, often Romanian premieres. Every year we start from certain themes that we want to bring up and try to select the best films on those topics. We have always chosen topics that are varied and topical but relevant to the Romanian context. Even if the films and themes are often from distant geographical areas, through the discussions accompanying the films we contextualize the different issues and identify similarities with the local context.

Recurring themes throughout the 5 editions so far have been urban development and housing explored in its various forms, as well as the intersection of architecture with related subjects (such as photography, object design, land art, etc.). Films about significant contemporary architects such as GlennMurcutt, Rem Koolhaas, BjarkeIngels, etc. are also a constant.

Each edition also includes side events that help to discover the city and deepen the themes illustrated by the selected films. Thus, guided tours of the city, exhibitions (such as Understanding Design, organized in partnership with Dizainăr, which aimed to illustrate the stages of the design process from concept to realization, or the exhibition LO±VE. 100 years of housing and neighbourhood in Romania, organized in partnership with MKBT:MakeBetter, which proposes a meeting with important moments from the past of housing in Romania and a debate around the +/-/= sign that we can put today between housing and neighbourhood).

In addition, an extremely important part are the activities dedicated to the young audience, such as workshops for children familiarizing them with various basic elements related to architecture and the city, as well as practical workshops for high school students, giving them both an opportunity to explore the city and to learn about the stages of filmmaking, with each team finally making a short film screened at the festival.

UrbanEye movie nights

Over the years, we have realized the relevance that these types of films can have in different communities, either as activation tools for different areas or as a complementary way to discuss topics covered at our partners' other events. That is why, in addition to the festival, during the year we organize UrbanEye Film Evenings as isolated screenings in unconventional spaces in Bucharest or in other cities in the country such as Timisoara, Cluj, Sibiu, Brasov, Targu Mures.

UrbanEye Film Festival 2019 will take place from November 6-10, 2019 in Bucharest.
For details about this event and our projects, please visit the website urbaneye.ro and the UrbanEye Film Festival Facebook page or Instagram.