The classic duo Truman & Cooper splashes the groundbreaking drama of “first love” with romance and tragedy. Walking us through the sensitive dilemma of our modern society hence delivering us with a completely new perspective for the main protagonist. First love starring 13 reasons why actor Deaken Bluman alongside a brilliant cast that brought denotation to writer Adi Tishar’s vision. Being nominated at the globes de cristal in 2019, awarded as the best short series at series mania in 2018 it has been delivering a hinge of thought-provoking sense of adult mental health and the hesitance of intimacy in the modern-day relationship.In this exclusive interview, the duo walks us through their journey of life work and creative themes of mingling for them

*Image Courtesy: Truman & cooper’s short form series ‘first love’*

Tell us about your journey as a duo? How did the transition happen from making the first film on the VCR at the age of 8 to becoming award-winning directors?

It’s a really long journey that started in the suburb of Paris where we both grew up. Our first meeting sounds like a cheesy romance. We were around 20 years old. Jonathan knew I was playing music in my garage, I (Anthony) knew he was making films with his cheap digital camera. I said to him that I also wanted to make films. He answered that he wanted to make music. And here we go! From this moment, we became best friends, lived in shared apartments, went on trips together, basically shared everything, making music and films all along. It was first just for fun, something we were naturally doing not really thinking about where it could lead. But when our first music videos got attention from people and production companies, we realised that it was actually possible to make all this become professional, like a real job! We are not roommates anymore, we don’t share all our free time together anymore, but we keep a really strong artistic bound.

Beginning a project do you find yourself starting with a location or a theme/subject first?

In general, I would say that every project starts with a feeling or an emotion. Because we grew up with a similar background and shared so many experiences together, we tend to emotionally understand each other really well. It means that when one of us feels and want to express something, the other one is always really receptive to it. So we are able to carry this emotion and to translate it hand in hand in a film.

Talking about the series ‘First Love’. What caught your attention in making this series, how crucial it is to understand the narrative from the protagonist’s perspective?

When we discovered the synopsis of First Love sent by its creator Adi Tishrai, we got really fascinated by the ambiguity of this particular relationship, between the 12-year-old lonely girl (Mercedes) and this 17-year-old mysterious new guy in town (Zack). We are generally frightened by the general tendency to create caricatures by simplifying the subtle entanglements that are human emotions and relation. This story was one of the rare ones that we read that was dealing with them with such a level of complexity. This Synopsis was short and not exactly telling us where to go but when we started working on the project, this ambiguity, this complexity of human emotions was something we really wanted to keep all along the process.This intention makes the audience always question the protagonist, his emotions, his intentions, never fully understanding what really drives him and that’s exactly what we wanted. Our intention was not to give clear explanations about the character but to show people how complex was his emotional journey.

The series revolves around two young teenage kids who want to explore the unknown side of love and intimacy. How do you view this relationship?

We see this relationship as something extremely complex and ambiguous. The only certainty is that it is a very edgy one. A relation where the boundary between crime and love becomes a real question. We obviously thought and discussed a lot about it and every time we were trying to answer clearly this question or to take position, we realised that we were then just simplifying it. So instead of having a judgmental point of view on their relationship, we decided to focus on our characters emotions, on what they are going through, in the most honest and sensitive way possible.

‘First Love’ sheds light on our inability as adults for not being able to address teens’ mental health issues and what impact it can have if neglected. How do you see society changing the norms when it comes to this subject in them coming years?

It’s a very social and political question that is completely out of our hands. But what we wanted with this series is at least to show people how important it was to take some distance when addressing teen’s mental health. We hope that this story could help to kill the stereotypes we all have when thinking about young people with mental problems; help to address this problem without letting our fears to lead us. And also to help adults listen to young people who are suffering before judging them.

You both equally share a passion for music playgrounds, So I am curious how you adapt the change of foregrounds while working on two really different aspects- Film &; Music while filming?

The relation between music and film is a central dimension of our work. Before making films together,we started doing music. I think music came before films because it felt to us like the most natural and impulsive way to share feelings or energies. Music seems to me even more impulsive and visceral than films. Like if it was a direct link to your soul and gut. In the process of writing First Love, one of the first things we did is to pinpoint all the moments where we felt that film wouldn’t be enough to translate the subtlety or the intensity of the emotion. Even before having the images, our composer Adrien Casalis started to compose music themes based on our description of these emotions. These music themes really drove our way to shoot and edit the pictures. I wouldn’t say that the music then takes the foreground, but I’m convinced that this alchemy between music and film is the most powerful tool we have to deeply and honestly touch people.

Lastly, are there any new projects you working on or would like to share?

We’re currently developing another series, with eight 30-minute episodes this time. That one will be in French and take place in Paris. The subject stays within our themes of predilection; an edgy and emotionally loaded teenage love story in the Parisian night. Shooting should start at the end of 2022/early 2023.

Full-length series available on the blackpills app: https://blackpills.com/apps-us

Truman & Cooper’s short form series ‘first love’ OUT NOW on Blackpills

First love credits: Directed by anthony jorge & jonathan cohen-berry aka Truman & Cooper created & written by adi tishrai with the participation of anthony jorge & jonathan cohen-berry story consultant: Barbara stepansky | story development: dean movshovitz & dan ronen head of development: romain blondeau | head of production: julie viez | executive producer: charles gillibert - cg cinema | executive producer: olivier gauriat - barnstormer | executive producer: morgane le moine - blackpills | line producer: ron Eli Cohen | supervising producer: Dave szamet | dop: zack spiger | editor: sacha szwart | casting: marin hope | prodution designer: Adriana serrano | costume designer: Elise velasco | hair department head: taschi lynell | key hair stylist: mirta yvette anguiano | make up department head: devin joplin | unit production manager: Sarah cossart | music: vimala | sound editor: julien perrin | supervising sound editor: julien bouchez | sound effects editor: théophile collier | dialogue editor: robin bouët re-recoding mixer: Samuel rouillard | 1st ac: Riley keeton | 2nd ac: adrienne durazo | colorist: Vincent amor assistant editor: loïck bessaguet | script supervisor: eszter zakariás key set production assistant: dakotah hitt | set medic: Amy larsen | production security: kait peck

By Roshni Pawar & Shinal Maheshwari

In conversation with truman & cooper’s short film series‘first love’

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