Archive Footages, Re-enacting and (Auto)biography in Andrei Ujică’s “The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu”

This paper examines the representation of history through archival and found footage in Andrei Ujică’s documentary, The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu (Autobiografia lui Nicolae Ceaușescu, 2010). The three-hour film, constructed from 1,000 hours of original footage from the National Archives of Romania, covers 25 years of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s life, offering an intimate portrayal rather than a traditional historical analysis. This study begins with a general overview of the role of archival footage in re-enacting history, drawing on frameworks by scholars such as Michael Zryd and Vivian Sobchack. It then contextualizes Ujică’s approach in The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceaușescu by comparing it to his earlier work, Videograms of a Revolution (Videogramme einer Revolution, 1992), co-directed with Harun Farocki. The analysis focuses on Ujică’s use of archival footage, sound elements, and narrative structure to build a nuanced portrait of Romania’s dictator. The paper aims to explore how Ujică’s method transforms historical documentation into a subjective “autobiography” thus contributing to the discourse on the cinematic re-enactment of history.