[Romanian folk music] Hi, I'm Stephanie.

I'm a 33-year-old American filmmaker, and a complete cinema nerd.

I love the oldies, the goodies; the New Waves or Golden Age; you name it, I'm in.

On my 33rd birthday, I decided to travel the world to meet and document other filmmakers my age.

Travel with me to over 33 countries to meet the storytellers who are dynamically challenging the status quo of the world today.

Together, we will watch their films, hear their stories, engage with their cultures, and perhaps, learn a little bit about life, love, cinema, history, and me.

[in Romanian] [fun music] Tedy is a filmmaker with the most infectious personality.

He is a magnet for all types of people, who are drawn to his resilience, his passion, intensity, and his love for humanity.

In a word, Tedy is inspirational and that's exactly what he strives to do with his filmmaking: inspire others.

I know, I don't think, I know, that people need inspiration.

In order to inspire through themselves.

So since I was a kid, I was looking for this kind of positive help.

Because I was disabled, and I was surrounded by groups of disabled children in the NGOs and stuff.

And then anytime we were in the streets or playing, there were people like "Oooh,” "ooh, shame on me.” “How can I look at you?"

You know, with this kind of bad feelings.

And then, I found out how to sell myself in a positive way.

Born eight months prior to the fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceau█escu, Tedy is among the first generation of Romanian filmmakers, who came of age in a post-Communist society.

Following the success of the Romanian New Wave filmmakers Tedy is forging his own path as a director to watch, rising in the ranks of the Romanian film industry, one step at a time.

I usually do inspirational films.

Or that kind of inspirational stories that move audiences in a positive way.

I like to say about my films, or my videos, or brands, that after you see them, you can kind of estimate one more time, the good things you have around you, or inside you.

So, I try to think of my films like mirrors.

Because when you put a mirror to the others, that's when you are a good model to them.

Tedy has been in love with the camera for as long as he can remember.

His favorite thing to play with as a little boy was a camera his father brought home from his work as a Criminologist.

My father on the other hand, he was a police officer.

And, when, each evening he was coming home, he always was bringing me something.

But the most special object that I enjoyed from him, was his camera.

At age 12, Tedy was cast as the lead actor in a Romanian film, "Noro," directed by Radu Gabrea.

"Noro" became the first Romanian film to show a disabled person in a positive light, as the main character.

Tedy instantly took to cinema, thus beginning his illustrious film career, and thanks to Radu Gabrea, who became a friend and mentor, he never looked back.

Noro is an abbreviation from "Norocul," which means "the lucky," or, “the luckiest.” And that's how, on my birthday of 12-years-old, I started shooting the main character, Noro.

And I remember then being in love with cameras.

I remember, from the first day, how they lighted the scenes!

It was HMIs [lighting].

On a pully, reversed, very simple.

But you know, all these details, I remember.

Radu's early career began in Romania.

He produced 2 award-winning features before emigrating to Germany, after attending the Cannes Film Festival.

Many of Radu's films are of a historical nature.

The bulk of his work was produced in Germany, though after the fall of Communism in 1989, Radu re-immigrated back to his homeland, and became the first Director of the Romanian Film Center.

Radu Gabrea passed away in 2017.

He never got to see Tedy's feature film debut in theaters, but no doubt, he was smiling down from above.

By age 16, Tedy had his first professional gig as a Film Director of inspirational videos for nonprofit organizations, and he immediately started his his own production company.

Now, Tedy has expanded his business to focus on commercial brands, making inspirational shorts for Fortune 500 companies.

[Tedy█s voice] When you feel you can't get up anymore, challenge yourself.

Do the exact opposite, and start again.

Stronger.

Faster.

Wiser.

The best version of you.

Like others say.

Both inside and out.

[inspirational music] When he is not directing films, Tedy tours the world as a motivational speaker, inspiring others through his own life story.

In one of my first correspondences with Tedy, he reached out to invite me to Romania for "33 and Me" and said, "Although I am 29, I believe in experiences over numbers."

We decided to include Tedy in "33 and Me," and waited until his 30th birthday to visit.

[Stephanie sings "Happy Birthday"] Thank you very much.

[Laughter] I had the honor of attending Tedy's 30th birthday party, and boy does Tedy know how to throw a birthday bash.

33 or so of his closest friends gathered to toast Tedy at his favorite wine bar in Bucharest.

I've never tasted such fabulous wine, and I had a blast observing Tedy in his element, amongst friends and family.

From day one, I could see how Tedy inspires everyone he comes into contact with.

[Adrian laughs with Tedy.]

When I started to create videos for NGOS, because this was my first approach in the business, I started with social issues, like social campaigns.

In an era, where in Romania, they understood by impacting people, socially, to scare them, to show them the bad things about the cause.

To show the problem.

So I was more into... let's show the solution.

Let's show the change, if you want the change.

[music swells] [flute music] Usually described, especially by those of us in the “West” as "Eastern Europe," Romania is geographically speaking, dead center between the continent's easternmost and westernmost points.

Politically, of course, we still associate Romania with the East, due to its 42-year history under the Soviet bloc, post-World War two.

Romania has drawn some unlucky cards throughout its history.

Because of its location, Romania has fallen prey to some of the world's biggest territorial disputes: between the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Soviet Union.

Always trying to get out on the side of the winners, Romania switched sides twice during World War Two, and ultimately ended up under the Soviet Union.

In the decades to follow, Romania transformed into a ruthless Totalitarian state.

The memory of the Ceau█escu years still loom large, but life improves every day.

Tedy is a byproduct of the Ceau█escu years, mixed with Romania's promising democratic change.

Tedy has had opportunities that his parents generation could never dream of, and he is able to make films freely on his own terms.

But it didn't always come easy for Tedy.

As a kid, Tedy was told by doctors, and society, that he would never learn to walk.

He did learn to walk, and with every step, he gets closer to his dreams of inspiring the entire nation with his success stories.

How does a young man, who was told that he would never be able to walk, let alone make films, overcome all odds to become one of Romania's most promising film directors of contemporary times?

Well, Radu Gabrea was also one of my mentors at that time.

He knew that I wanted to enter University of Film, and he was introducing me to the Dean at that time, of the National School of Film.

And, so he saw me, and when he saw me, he said, "Yeah but you can't be here."

"Because we invest in students with potential of doing films after."

I said, "Look, I have a DVD with work, short films to documentaries."

I was in my last week of high school.

And 17 commercials!

"Yeah, but you know, you have a handicap."

"How would you put the film in the camera?"

And he was afraid.

He was absolute.

And I thought, "Okay, if I enter, by magic, and if I found too many guys like this, would that school be good for me?"

And I decided to go with some private university, related to the biggest studios in Romania at that time.

You know, I was very well treated.

Everyone bragged about me for "Noro."

I do things normally, without any advantage, but I was a very, very good student.

And I said, "Why do I need the prestige of naming of that National Film School if I can't find the right people?

To do the things."

[melancholy music] After the execution of Nicolae Ceau█escu on Christmas Day in 1989, and the resulting fall of Communism as the official state party, the Romanian orphanage scandal shocked the world.

Images of malnourished children, some abused, and photos of disabled orphans tied to beds, exposed a generation of mistreated children of Ceau█escu's failed population policies.

[forboding music] Ceau█escu ruled for 25 years in Totalitarian style, modeling his leadership after Kim Il Sung of North Korea.

Ceau█escu's main policy priority was to increase the population and create a strong, loyal workforce to contribute back to the State.

He believed that a larger population would create a higher level of legitimacy for Romania on the world stage.

Ceau█escu's policies outlawed abortion and contraception, and he added a tax on wages for childless Romanians.

His "menstrual police," members of the secret police known as the Secretariat, routinely rounded up women under 40 to check for pregnancies.

Disabled children, especially, were not considered worthy workers for the state, and were often taken to State-run orphanages, which notoriously mistreated them.

When Tedy was born with Cerebral Palsy, the doctors insisted to his parents that they give him up to a State-run orphanage, a near death sentence for a disabled child at the time.

Tedy's parents bravely refused to give him up, and raised him lovingly, creating the strong and inspiring individual we know today.

[film clip in Romanian] In October 2018, Tedy released his debut feature film, "Beside Me," which he deems the first Romanian inspirational film.

"Beside Me" takes place in real time, in a subway car in Bucharest stuck underground between stations, where varying facets of society work out their differences.

[film clip in Romanian] Tedy's first feature played for over six months in cinemas across Romania, and he even turned a profit.

Part of this success, I believe, is that "Beside Me" does not bemoan the past Communist society, and rehash historical events that are still fresh on many Romanians minds.

Rather, the film presents life of a current society, and encourages individuals to come together despite their differences, in a lighthearted, upbeat manner After I finished the film, it was the first time in 8 years in many, many years, I was somehow proud of myself.

Because, this film was like a promise.

A promise...

I think that I was expecting far too much from myself!

From me.

And when I accomplished it, and I had my first feature film, the desired one, And almost in the shape I wanted it.

I said, "Okay..." Take one white-board.

You made it!

And for my inner self, was, "Wow!"

I feel that I really want to sell these positive, Romanian stories That we as Romanians need.

Because, we have a very, very low self esteem, and a big ego.

And this combination, which at one point was myself, also, is very damaging to us.

It's a bad way of seeing yourself.

Tedy was the ultimate fixer and host during my stay in Romania, and arranged tour after tour of Bucharest's top cinema landmarks We toured the National Film Archives, where we observed the process of digitizing old Romanian classics; and saw where the old scripts, movies, posters, film scores and wardrobe sketches are kept.

We visited the Museum of Romanian Records, which was a delight.

Tedy and I geeked out over the large collection of antique cameras, the largest in the world.

Even more impressive was the collection of over 30,000 corkscrews, which the museum houses.

It is called the Museum of Romanian Records, because it holds the Guinness Book of World Records for the most number of world records of large collections around the globe.

It's Charlie Chaplin's cameras, look!

Wow!

We also visited the National University of Bucharest School of Film and Theater, where we got a tour of their well equipped, brand new facilities, and chatted with Professor Horea Murgu about his program to unite neuroscience with theater and film as a form of experimental therapy.

What we are doing in the school, it█s putting together Game Design and education, because, really speaking, everything I know in Nuclear Physics, it's something which I can explain using Game Design.

Game Design could do almost everything.

We visited the Castel Film Studios, the biggest studios and full-service production house in all of Eastern Europe, where films such as "Ghost Rider," "Cold Mountain," and "Hatfields and McCoys" were shot.

We started as a fully private company, and we said, "Yeah, it's worth having our own studio."

That seemed to be a crazy idea in that period.

[Laughter] We had just come out of Communism, so it was difficult to do business, to understand, you know, market economy, and doing business in the new environment, et cetera, etc.

We have produced our own films, however in a smaller number.

Romanian films.

You want to see that grow?

Yes!

Yes, sure, why not?

[Peppy music.]

[Mellow string music.]

In November, 1948 [Mellow string music.]

after Romania fell under the Soviet bloc, the film industry was nationalized, and thus began the period of "Socialist cinema," where films spoke to political ideology and reinforced stereotypes of what the working class should strive to become for a better nation.

In 1957, Romanian director, Ion Popescu-Gopo, won the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival, for an animation called, "Short History."

Romania has produced some fabulous animations since, and now, the Romanian Film Academy Awards, established in 2007, are called the "Gopo Awards."

Many films from Romania in the 1960█s and '70s depict tales of great historical glory, such as "Forest of the Hanged," and "Michael the Brave."

[soldiers cheering] "Michael the Brave" Director, Sergiu Nicolaescu, later became one of the public figureheads of the 1989 Romanian Revolution.

In later years, Nicolaescu expressed regret at his political activism, because it distracted him from his creative endeavors.

Before and during the Communist years, cinema was funded and supported by the State.

But after Ceau█escu's fall, cinema was among the first to go down with it.

It took years before the cinema of Romania flourished again.

[Stephanie speaking] So I had read somewhere that during the Communist years, there were a lot of cinemas in Romania.

Something like 400 cinemas.

And now there aren't as many, and they've slowly been turned into other things, or shut down, over the last 30 years, I guess.

So, is there a cinema culture here?

Do people go to the theater, or is there, how many do you think there are left?

[Tedy speaking] In the last years, many of the cinemas were closing, because of the safety laws that they encountered after that fire.

Other places came up, like little cinemas.

Art cinemas.

Combined with these little stages so they can even profit from the end.

[film clip in Romanian] Nowadays, when you hear about Romanian cinema, it is likely by some cinephile waxing poetic about the Romanian New Wave films, which sprang to life the decade after Ceau█escu's fall from power.

Critics cite the release of Cristi Puiu's film, "The Death of Mister Lazarescu” in 2005, as the start of the Romanian New Wave.

But recent scholars suggest it goes back to Puiu's debut film, "Stuff and Dough," in 2001.

[film clip in Romanian] "The Way I Spent The End Of The World" is perhaps my favorite of the New Wave, a film which depicts the last days of Ceau█escu's time in power, while serving equally as a brilliant coming-of-age story.

It really underscores the paranoia of living in Ceau█escu's Romania, as you never knew which of your neighbors or family members had been recruited by the Secretariat to spy on you.

1 in 30 people were said to have worked for the secret police; and spying, phone tapping, and recording conversations became a common occurrence in Romania.

The main commonality between Romanian New Wave films, is that most of them depict life during, or directly after Ceau█escu's dictatorship.

As a result, the Romanian New Wave films did not do as well at home, as they did abroad.

Audiences in Romania had less interest in going to the theaters.

If they went at all, they went to see Hollywood Blockbusters as a form of escape.

The Romanian New Wave films hit a little too close to home for the local audiences, as the horrors of Ceau█escu's years were still very fresh on the memory of everyday Romanians, and nobody wanted to re-live that, not even in the cinema.

This is what makes Tedy's filmmaking refreshing for a modern Romanian audience.

He makes films for entertainment over art; and does so with a positive, inspirational twist.

Tedy's films do not discuss the horrors of the past, but rather, the promise of the future.

I don't see the difference that people call... That people put within commercial cinema [versus art] Oh, interesting.

The only thing that, in my point of view, differs, is the marketing!

How much marketing you make, how many tickets you've sold.

So for you cinema is all about entertainment?

It is the art of making money through "art."

Yeah.

I am the opposite.

I consider myself an "artist," And sometimes I feel that [laughs] is a little pretentious, when I say, "Oh, I'm an artist!"

"I'm an auteur!"

But I still relate to it as a means of communicating, and a means of expression, and to me, that is a beautiful art form.

Uh-huh.

I don't consider myself an artist.

[Stephanie chuckles.]

I mean, I don't know very many people, who have successfully made money off of their independent film projects.

And I think that is an art form in itself.

The fact that you are thinking practically: you want to entertain, you want people to see it, you want people to enjoy it, you want people to feel good at the end of it, and you want to make money off of it!

Cause we need to eat, we need to live!

So, I think it's beautiful!

I felt honored to be able to call Tedy a friend And to me, he is an inspiration.

I cannot wait to see what he does next to inspire his fellow Romanians, and the rest of the world.

Tedy is living proof that anything is possible.

Expect the unexpected.

And remember, if Tedy can walk, speak, make films, and continue to be successful, so can you.

[traditional Romanian music] To learn more about the Cinema Nomad filmmakers and dive deeper into the exciting world of global cinema, Visit our website, Cinema Nomad.TV