New York-based film critic and professor Monica Filimon will sign copies of her new book Cristi Puiu (University of Illinois Press 2017) and deliver a talk about the beginnings of New Romanian cinema with a specific focus on the works of director Cristi Puiu and his black comedy The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. 

In Cristi Puiu, Filimon explores the works of an artist dedicated to truth not as an abstract concept, but as the ephemeral revelation of the fuller, ungraspable world beyond the screen. Puiu's innovative use of the handheld camera as an observer and his reliance on austere, restricted narration highlight the very limits of human understanding, guiding the viewer's intellectual and emotional sensibilities to the reality that has been left unfilmed. Filimon examines the director's ethics of epiphany not only in relation to the collective and personal histories that have triggered it, but also in dialogue with the films, texts, and filmmakers that have shaped it.

Monica Filimon has published various articles, interviews and reviews in the Cineaste Magazine as well as in many other peer-reviewed journals and anthologies. She is currently an assistant professor of English at Kingsborough Community College, CUNY.