UrbanEye 2025 to commemorate a decade since Colectiv Club fire in Bucharest

UrbanEye, a festival dedicated to documentaries about architecture, cities, communities, and housing, is set to host its 12th edition between October 30 and November 9 in Bucharest. This year’s edition is dedicated to commemorating ten years since the fire at Colectiv Club, as well as to the memory of Cătălina Ioniță and Mihai Alexandru, co-founders of UrbanEye, who were lost in the fire.

The festival’s central theme is the void, “seen both as absence and wound, but also as a fertile space for new beginnings,” according to the press release.

The theme is inspired by the doctoral thesis of architect Cătălina Ioniță, who considered the void to be “understood as the presence of an absence that reveals the character of intermediation, between a past moment, whose memory it sometimes preserves, and a future moment as a place for projecting an idea.”

The festival program will include commemorative activities, workshops, and debates inspired by the themes of the films. The film selection will bring stories about communities from around the world that have gone through losses, of lives, of homes, of cities, and that speak about the strength of people to rebuild.

“We wanted this edition to be, ten years after Colectiv, both a tribute and an opportunity to reflect on how the voids left by such moments are imprinted in the city and in our lives. Through films, discussions, and events, we talk about how we can understand absences not only as losses but also as grounds for reconstruction and solidarity,” said Monica Sebestyen, the festival’s co-director.

“It is also an invitation to look with humanity around us, to remain attentive to the challenges of the present, no matter how uncomfortable they may sometimes be, and to continue doing what we can,” she added.

(Photo source: UrbanEye Film Festival on Facebook)