Lunch with Don’t, kiss .mov

Interview with Fabio Liberti and Carl Olsson, codirectors of Don’t, Kiss .mov

Why were you interested in picturing homosexual desire and do you have further projects on this theme?
Our idea was not to picture homosexual desire, but to treat homosexuality as a matter of fact: homosexuality is represented, but it is not the theme of the movie as the movie could happen with exactly the same visual script as a heterosexual relationship. Our interest was in the physical exploration of the kiss and to make sure it would apply to all genders as an inclusive movie. Hence the choice to zoom in to the point that the last images could belong to anyone independently from their sexual identification.

How did you work on the choreography?  
Don’t, Kiss exists as a duet dance piece. The idea to create a movie out of the duet (Don’t, Kiss .mov) came to reveal aspects of the piece that could not be experienced by the live performance. The choreography is an extract of the original duet that was modified to make it fit into the space and the idea that Carl and myself have defined. 

How long did it take to create it and to shoot it?
After the creation of the choreography in different phases (that was several weeks of work which had previously happened), we had two shooting days and of course, as with any one-take, the challenge was to make everything work at the same time. It was an extremely complicated camera movement that included a zoom and an advanced focus pull that was really difficult to pull off. At the same time, the dancers had to succeed with the advanced choreography, and we had to make everything work together. It was some teamwork that finally paid off.

Is there any inspiration from the Demon song You Are My High?
No.

Would you say that the short film format has given you any particular freedom?
It is never easy to work with the short film format as it demands a much higher level of simplicity and preciseness than a feature film. Our solution to this challenge was to shoot it in one location and in one take.

What are your reference works?
We watched the mouth in Not I, Samuel Beckett, and talked about how we could detach the mouth and the kiss from the body and from the surroundings.

Don’t, Kiss .mov is part of Lab Competition L3.