Here is the short interview I conducted with Two Director Vasilios Papaioannu:
Nigrin: Your brilliant experimental film Two is structured as a conversation—between sound and image, seasons come and gone, natural and altered landscapes, and an unseen man and woman. Please tell us more about your film and how you came to make it?
Papaioannu: The idea behind Two is to create a conversation between sound and image, between two worlds occupied by an unseen man and an unseen woman; in other words Two can be thought as a virtual message board where the person creating the movie is using visuals (images and words) to communicate, respond to the sounds captured and created by the other person. Two is a movie about love.
Nigrin: The images in your film are very mysterious and compelling at the same time. Where did you shoot your film and how did you decide to assemble the film in this way?
Papaioannu: I shot Two in Marcola, Oregon and in different locations between Syracuse and Cooperstown in New York, using primarily 16mm film and standard definition digital video. I also shot a lot of photographs (35mm and 120mm). The reason why Two looks and feels the way it does is because I edited first the sound without the images and then I created a visual world as a response to the sound. The words were added later.
Nigrin: The soundtrack weaves in and out with the images connecting at certain times. Was this intended?
Papaioannu: As I mentioned before, I intended to separate sound and image. When you make a choice like that, there is a big chance that you will create a lot of disconnection between the two. It felt liberating to me and that’s why I did it. My concern was not to increase or reduce this disconnection; I just wanted to have a sound-image relationship that creates a feeling.
Nigrin: The soundtrack is really very intriguing. Tell us more about the sounds and voices in your film.
Papaioannu: The sound is a real field recording session (one of many) made by two filmmakers in Marcola, Oregon. The intention was to create an archive of nature sounds. The two filmmakers are myself Vasilios Papaioannu and Emma Piper-Burket.
Two is part of the New Jersey Film Festival Super Shorts 1 Program. Here is more information on this screening:
Time Trance – Benjamin Ridgeway (San Francisco, California) A fittingly brief, animated meditation on the perception of time and the ever-changing state of reality. 2019; 2 min.
His Eyes Behind Mine –Qin Ziwei (San Marino, California) An emotional journey through love, sex, obsession, and violence, based on a true story. 2019; 6 min.
Two – Vasilios Papaioannu (Syracuse, New York) Two is structured as a conversation—between sound and image, seasons come and gone, natural and altered landscapes, and an unseen man and woman. It begins as a duet between a video diary and a field recording, and ends as an archive of the possibilities hibernating within each moment. 2019; 8 min. Q+A Session with Director Vasilios Papaioannu!
Mixed Movie – Vasco Diogo (Covilhã, Portugal) This short film was entirely made using a mobile phone and several apps. Inspired by a surrealistic aesthetic, in which creativity, randomness, and the imagination play important roles, it reflects on the possibilities of contemporary social media short videos, neither as an absolute celebration nor as a technophobic critique. 2019; 10 min.
Smoke -n- Suds – George Nicholas (Mamaroneck, New York) Two punks meet at a laundromat in the late 80's, in New York’s Hell's Kitchen, in this animated film. 2019; 13 min. Q+A Session with Director George Nicholas!
Daughter – Daria Kashcheeva (Prague, Czech Republic) This animated film from the Czech Republic asks many questions. Should you hide your pain? Close yourself inside your inner world, full of longing for your father’s love? Or should you understand and forgive before it is too late? 2019; 15 min.
Greene Dreams – Quinn Turon and Nadia Boyea (Greenville, New York) A young small-town girl, searching for answers to a suspicious occurrence, realizes that a high school friend, who might have been involved, must be the subject of her investigation. 2019; 24 min. Q+A Session with Directors Quinn Turon and Nadia Boyea!
Co-sponsored by the Rutgers University Cinema Studies Program!
Friday, January 31, 2020 at 7:00 PM in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, New Jersey
$14= Advance; $12=General; $10=Students+Seniors
Information: (848) 932-8482; www.njfilmfest.com
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