Teodorescu’s continuous present is highlighted in a high impact emotional documentary film and summed up in the eighteen volumes of more than six hundred photos from the after 1920s Neamț County and other places from Moldavia.

Ioan Clopoțel is the one who brings back to life the images of the past times and places in a piece-by-piece video made with postcards from the collection of the teacher N. Teodorescu, the Headmaster of the Boys’ School no. 4 in Piatra Neamț, from the following years after the 1920s, a collection that was donated and which is currently found and preserved at the Neamţ County Directorate of National Archives.

The well-known Neamț photographer, Ioan Clopoțel brings to the public’s attention Neamț County and other Moldavian areas from those times, in a one of a kind description, with image inserts from the current days of Piatra Neamț and famous past renowned songs, as well as audio text quotes from well-known Romanian authors.

”The areas from Moldavia have all kinds of sceneries, cheerful, dark, country like ones, enriched by the nature’s embellishments, that have an uncomprehensive soft melancholy character, like the perfume of a delicate flower…” this is how the description of the Moldavian area begins, especially of the most beautiful places from Neamț County.

A documentary that brings you into the atmosphere of past times, with postcards of Neamț County and many other places, made by renowned photographers of the past century from Piatra Neamț, such as Braunstein and A. Ditgartz. „Târgu Neamț area is represented by photographs signed by Pascu, the owner of a workshop in the city at the foothill of the Neamț fortress. The images showing the Northern part of the county towards Borsec, are the ones of Georg Heiter, the famous photographer and choir conductor from Reghin, who had opened a second photo-studio in Borsec, a resort intensively attended during the first years of the twentieth century by the aristocracy of Piatra Neamț.” (The continuous present of N Teodorescu, a documentary film by Ioan Clopoțel)

About Piatra Neamț

Between Cozla and Pietricica, which look like two guards watching out for the city since the beginning of the world’s childhood, spreads Piatra Neamț City (…)

Important foreigners are very well received, well treated and even celebrated, which is a very odd custom. The fact that the women of Piatra Neamț are very beautiful became a very well-known thing all over the world (…)

 

”A Sir” among all other mountains that make up the most impressive guards around him, the great Ceahlău Massif, which has kept his baptism name since the times of the Dacians, barely known in some of the most hidden corners of the modern geography as Mount Pion, with his head held up high towards the Sun, generously spreading love from the riches of its old green slopes and up to the green field, which he loves most of all, as if she was his oldest daughter (…)>

 

The description of Neamț County revives long lost times. We live in a present that no longer recognizes those times, which keeps very few common things with the past century, but which takes you back to it through something extremely valuable: image testimonials of the places from Neamț County and the Moldavian area, from a time, which remains this way alive in the conscience of the community, in the heart and mind of those who remember it, who are willing to learn more about history, to connect to it or those who become nostalgic when they see and hear the testimonies, who succeed to see themselves as part of that world, that is very different from the one that we are currently living.

A selection of postcards inserted in the video clip:

Almost all the towns of Neamț County or their representative buildings are displayed in a bird’s eye view way: Piatra Neamț, Târgu Neamț, Bicaz, Roznov, Tazlău, Buhuși, Tarcău. There are also photos of the resorts of the early twentieth century: Bălțătești, Oglinzi, Durău, Cheile Bicazului, Red Lake, Tulgheș, Borsec; all monasteries and most of the hermitage settlements are also highlighted.

 

Postcards from the 1920s, that show one of the main occupations of the locals from Neamț County at those times, a representative industry of the area and an economic landmark at that time: wood exploitation.

 

The main theme of the documentary is the railway station, making reference to the passing time, the border between the past, present and future. The continuous flow of the story of Neamț County, a small part of the main picture of those times that can be associated, metaphorically speaking, to the course of the old Bistrița River, that carries along with it the stories of the facts that passed over time.

“The documentary film is a humble homage to the collectors, the Neamț County locals, who dedicated their precious time, energy and skills to put together in one place evidence of the times that they lived in. By posting the documentary essay the author intends to celebrate the initiative of a century ago of the remarkable, intellectual and local citizen N. Teodorescu, who is today already forgotten Well, we wish this project, that is a lot later put in motion, to be the first step towards the rightful recognition of N. Teodorescu’s grand gesture”, states the author of the documentary film, Ioan Clopoțel.

You can find below the short version of the documentary video:

Photo gallery showing Neamț County of nowadays from the archive of Neamț County Council

Piatra Neamț

Piatra Neamț railway station

Ceahlău Massif

Other images from Neamț County