The research aims to trace the reflections of collective housing’ modernizing project in the narratives of documentary films, produced in socialist Romania. Following Anna Tsing’s (2021) perspective on the ‘latent’ commons as inherent to living together, while expanding on previous research about collective housing illustrating creative and disobedient informality as a local form of ‘discreet commoning’ (Axinte, 2024), the project evidences the legacy of the socialist city in today’s world. By focusing on the representations of informal practices associated with dwelling, the research seeks to map the evolving relations between the socialist state and its tenants. Depending on their realization period, the films’ initiators and the illustrated topics, informality is either sanctioned, ignored, accepted, supported or even adopted. From a disciplinary discourse, through which informality was subordinated as uncivilized, to its valorisation, as forms of volunteering and productive citizenship in support of the collective effort, the representations and narrativizations of informal practices function as a marker, potentially reflecting broader socio-political shifts manifesting in the socialist city. Through mainly qualitative research, including methods like archival inquire, content analysis or mapping, the project aims to contribute also to current debates, evidencing informal practices’ creative potential in the context of current urban crises.