Natasha Pincus

There’s a certain amount of base information I take for granted that I’ll be able to find. Oh, a lot of things I have to really dig for, if I’m interested, and there are certain categories that are frustratingly incomplete on IMDb. Like shorts and music videos, the two things for which Natasha Pincus is known. (Also stunts and enormous amounts of behind-the-scenes stuff. And composing is split into multiple categories and tends to miss stuff.) Still, there are details I expect, especially when I look at people’s personal pages, and that’s their ages. And I don’t know how old Natasha Pincus is.

She is apparently Australian. She definitely went to university somewhere. She is a “qualified and experienced lawyer and research scientist,” per her personal website. What kind of research scientist? I had to Google to discover that it’s microbiology, which showed me that almost every biography of her online is basically the same and written by what I believe to be her management team. Also apparently she did corporate law. And then she dropped both those things and went into making music videos and short films. For reasons.

I mean most of those details are none of my business, just because I’ve watched her most famous music video a couple dozen times. It’s none of my business what the details are for a lot of the people I write about. And honestly I don’t blame her for not being inclined to share details. Especially age—age and women are a complicated combination in the arts. It’s none of any of our business. I write about people and you read about them, and we all kind of take it for granted that the basic biographical information is something we should be allowed to access. It’s kind of strange, if you think about it.

Now, while I do desperately want to know more about some of the reasons for things—microbiology and corporate law? And she appears to have studied both at the same time. And then she apparently dropped them both in favour of putting Gotye in body paint. And while I have no problem with that career shift—obviously I like that video—it is still strange, and I’d like to know more details. Even if you don’t like that video, how do you go from whatever the hell she did in microbiology to making multiple videos for a David Bowie show? That is the kind of spectacle you just don’t get in the courtroom.

Will she, like David Fincher, make the transition to being a director of fascinating visually stimulating movies? Don’t know. I don’t know how old she is and how long she plans to continue this career, either. Maybe she’ll go do something else. I’d like to see her play with movies some more, because she’s got a good eye. I’d watch a feature from her—Wikipedia says she’s written some in Australia but doesn’t give any details. All they list is the awards she’s won and been nominated for. Not a filmography to be seen. It’s almost impressive how mysterious she manages to remain.