Useful Cinema in State Socialist Europe

Lucie Česálková is Associate Professor at the Department of Film Studies, Charles University, Czech Republic. In her research, she focuses on the history of nonfiction cinema and the history of non-commercial film exhibition and moviegoing. She co-edited, with Johannes Praetorius-Rhein, Perrine Val and Paolo Villa, a volume Non-Fiction Cinema in Postwar Europe. Visual Culture and the Reconstruction of Public Space (2024).Christian Ferencz-Flatz is a philosopher and media scholar, working as lecturer at the National University of Theatre and Film, Romania. His research concerns phenomenology, critical theory, state socialist history of ideas, film and media philosophy. He published the monograph Critical Theory and Phenomenology. Polemics, Appropriations, Perspectives (2023).Ana Szel is an archivist, curator, and PhD candidate at the National University of Theatre and Film, Romania. Her research focuses on useful cinema and marginal film practices, with a particular interest in early cinema and film as aninterdisciplinary field. She published Atheist Education and Popular Science Film in Socialist Romania (2025).

This innovative volume offers pioneering perspectives on educational, advertisement, and industrial films of the socialist period that shaped generations of viewers across 20th century Eastern Europe. Through rich contextual analysis of production and circulation of films outside commercial circuits, it makes a remarkably timely contribution to regional and global film history. -- Oksana Sarkisova, Central European University.For too long, research on useful cinema and industrial film has focused on market economies and the work of large corporations in North Western Europe and the United States. With this pioneering volume, Lucie Česálková, Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Ana Szel, and their contributors redefine the field. With a focus on state socialist Europe, this volume lays the groundwork for a richer and more nuanced understanding of moving images and their role in shaping social and economic organizations across history. -- Vinzenz Hediger, director of the Cinémathèque Suisse.

• ContentsIntroductionPlanned, but Fickle. Useful Films of Socialist EuropeLucie Česálková, Christian Ferencz-Flatz, Ana SzelPart 1: Media Infrastructures and International RelationsUseful Cinema as a Challenge to the State-Socialist Mode of Film ProductionLucie ČesálkováBetween Useful and Useless. Small Gauge and Amateur Film in Socialist HungaryEszter PolonyiAuthentic, Technically Proficient, and Non-aligned. The Delineating of Good Amateur Film and Successful Amateur Cinema in Yugoslav Festival Regulations and ReportsHanna SteinFrom “That’s ORWO” to “Low-key – Made in the GDR”. Trends in East German Export Advertising Films from the 1950s to the 1980sRalf ForsterMigration, Geopolitics, and Underdevelopment. Sensitive Topics in Socialist Romanian Tourist AdvertisementsChristian Ferencz-FlatzPart 2: Righting Wrongs, Averting DangersUseful Film and Photography in the Investigation of War Crimes in the USSR (1942–1945). Historical Paths, Practices of the VisualIrina TchernevaIn the Department Store. Genres and Socialist Consumer Culture in Hungarian Feature and Police Educational Films in the 1950sLászló StrauszDangerous Spaces. Workplace Safety Film in Socialist Romania between Occupational Hazards and State RegulationsAna SzelActions in the Event of an Atomic Catastrophe during the Cold War. Civil Defense Films at Riga Film StudioZane BalčusPart 3: Educating People, Shaping Life and EnvironmentA Safe Haven at the Teachers’ Vault. The Educational Film in Late 1940s PolandKonrad Klejsa, Emil SowińskiFrom Land Cultivation to Cultivation of Viewers. Soviet Agricultural Films within Agitprop SystemVictoria ElizarovaLife is Movement, Yet Cinema is Death. The Biological Films of Karol MarczakMichał MatuszewskiEnvironmental Animation under Socialism. A Multifunctional FormatJana Rogoff