Adina Pintilie

[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] Show less «

[on Touch Me Not (2018)] I think for many people this film might not be comfortable but at the same time we challenge you, the viewer, to dialogue and to look at yourself. [Feb.2018] Show less «

[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] Show less «

[on Touch Me Not (2018), psychology, psychoanalysis and therapy] The film is not a book on psychology and Freud [Sigmund Freud] is not the only one who looked at this connection between childhood and your further relationships. This idea is explored in most psychological approaches. What had more impact in this research is another book by Michael Bader, called "Arousal". He explores the effects of our sexual behavior as a key to understanding the deeper self. If you look at an S&M relationship, there's a power dynamic. If you experience these drives, first of all you might judge yourself, but if you look with honesty to what that means; why do you have to be controlled by someone? Why do you have to give up responsibility? If you look at this stuff and dig down, you might realize things about yourself that are not necessarily connected to sexuality but to other blockages from the past. Looking into our sexual behaviors is a mirror of ourselves. You don't judge yourself or others as much. Seani [Seani Love] - our colleague - we have a character in the film that deals with that. Seani-therapy is a mix of escort and psychotherapist. He explores Laura's [Laura Benson] borders and anger issues. This guy has the same approach as Michael Bader, looking into your sexual fantasies, preference, needs and trying to understand what is behind that. How can you be helped to free yourself from these blockages? Neither of these methods looks at it as some sort of disease more of an imbalance that you are confronted with at a certain point that you can regulate. [Feb.2018] Show less «

[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] Show less «

[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] Show less «

My work, my life, myself tend to be the same. I only try to live this short life in a beautiful way. And my work helps me do this. It's my way of being happy. [Berlinale Talents, 2006] Show less «

[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] Show less «