Biography

She is not related to the renowned Romanian director Lucian Pintilie.

Artistic director and curator of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival (BIEFF).

Member of the 'First Appearance' jury at the International Documentary Filmfestival Amsterdam (IDFA) in 2018.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 42nd Göteborg International Film Festival (GIFF) in 2019.

Member of the 'Official Competition' jury at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival in 2021.

[on Touch Me Not (2018)] The emotional drive that started this research was the assumption I had when I was 20: I thought I knew everything about intimacy, now I realize how wrong I was, so let's go and discover. I am also part of the process but the focus is not on me. I and the camera are more like the frame through which to read the whole experience. I establish that, especially in the prologue and the epilogue. My position there is more like a child, stepping out into the world and being very curious about people, how they experience intimacy. In the relationship with these people, like Laura [Laura Benson] and the others, I understand things about myself, I grow, I open my mind. [Feb.2018]

[if Touch Me Not (2018) is a therapeutic experience] When you grow up and are raised in a family maybe things don't go right always, in the therapeutic relationship you have a chance to relearn to relate. In connection with that mirror in front of you who is the terrorist. So in this sense, it is a therapy, not in the sense that you cure a disease because that can have many meanings. "Touch Me Not" can be called a therapeutic process or a therapeutic relationship. [Feb.2018]

[on the process of creating Touch Me Not (2018)] It was two years of research, I wouldn't call it casting because this is not fiction. You look for like-minded people that would like to come on a journey with you. The process began after we found them, then the relationship of working with them started. We made them keep diaries. Basically, it was not a single period of shooting, it was more like a documentary. You have the research where you film the preparation, then you have the official shooting period, then you go to editing and then back to shooting. All the while, we had procedures that mixed fiction and reality.The participants received cameras themselves, we would do diaries. I gave them homework on the topic of intimacy so that they would produce their own material, they would send that to me then we would Skype to discuss. Then we repeat that process. So they befriended the team and the camera and our collaboration became more comfortable. [Feb.2018]

[on Touch Me Not (2018)] The film focuses on the non-normative in many respects and I do feel that beauty is very subjective. I think those people are very beautiful, I don't know how other people are going to experience their image. To me they are not only beautiful but fascinating from so many different points of view. We've been educated to believe beauty is a certain way, and intimacy and sexuality should function in a certain way. So basically the film is questioning all that. [Feb.2018]

[how to define Touch Me Not (2018)] I would never call it [a] documentary. We refuse that label with all our force. It's a hybrid of fiction and reality. [Feb.2018]