It was 2011 when Jacob Perlmutter completed his BA (Hons) Film Production studies at AUB (back then, known as the Arts University College at Bournemouth). In the meantime, he’s taken “the scenic route” – exhibiting his photography, recording two albums of his music, directing content advertising, and making music videos alongside short films.
“During my 20s, I was trying to explore what I truly wanted to do,” he says. “Film is the coming-together of these different artistic forms, so it makes sense that I ended up here in the end. But they were really passionate forays into different directions.
“All these things really sharpened my understanding of what I learned at AUB in terms of what it is to be a director, the key to getting what’s in your mind through the form of collaboration onto the screen, and that huge endeavour of working with all these different people in order to come together and make something solid.”
Jacob reflects on a project, Perfect Weather, that he made with a group of fellow AUB alumni a few years after graduating – a music video shot on 35 mm while battling the winds around Old Harry Rocks.
“It was one of those projects where I think all of us were able to pull on our skill sets that we developed at university and come together to make something that, to this day, I’m still very proud of.”
Since the beginning of 2022, however, Jacob has been working on his feature film debut – Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other – alongside his wife, the award-winning fashion and portrait photographer Manon Ouimet.
The documentary premiered at CPH:DOX and came away with a Special Mention prize, before sweeping through the film festival circuit, including the BFI London Film Festival in October. It then took to the States with appearances in Denver, Philadelphia (where it won Best Documentary Feature) and DOC NYC, followed by IDFA in Amsterdam, where it played Best of Fests.
But where did the journey towards making Two Strangers begin?
The film follows the relationship between artist and writer Maggie Barrett and Joel Meyerowitz, who Jacob describes as “one of the real founding fathers of contemporary street photography.”
“I’ve been a big fan of Joel’s for a long time,” Jacob says. “After my first year of studying Film, I went off to America to do a road trip, paying homage to the photographer Robert Frank and his project The Americans. I think I did that in 2008, which I think was 50 years after The Americans was published, so it was a kind of tribute project.
“I bought a Leica and I fell in love with street photography as a form and was already a bit of a fan of American street photography – in particular, between the ‘50s and ‘80s – and I developed more of a love for that movement of photographers. And one of those photographers is Joel Meyerowitz.”
A chance encounter led Jacob to meet Joel and Maggie – “When I saw them side-by-side as an older couple, they seemed to have a beautiful mesmerising aura about them, and it’s such a strange, ephemeral thing to try to describe about two people, but they really had an energy, which is palpable in the film.”
However, it was a couple of years later, during the pandemic and coming across Maggie’s blog that impelled Jacob to reach out to them and suggest making a documentary about their lives.
“They were living in Tuscany at the time, and we got talking, and then [Manon and I] had been married during this period, but we were already a couple, and then we suddenly thought about what it would be like for a younger artist couple to make a film about an older artist couple.
“Separated by 45 years but with so much in common. We found a lot in common with each other, so when the four of us started talking and hanging out, there was an energy, and all of a sudden, the whole shape of it made sense.”
Jacob explains that between the four’s first proper meeting and the start of filming, there were only a few months in between. Over a year-long filming period, they moved into Maggie and Joel’s houses in Tuscany and New York whenever filming, which Jacob says, “Generated an extremely intimate bond, and a wonderful sense of trust and camaraderie between the four of us.”
And for four people with a lot in common, living in close quarters, one would assume that there were some challenging, potentially tense moments. But in this case, “There was never any friction,” as Manon reveals.
“We found this rhythm, this dance, and we were just able to move around in each other’s presence in a very open and inviting way. It was like we wanted to soak each other up, and I’ve never experienced this before with anybody else.
“It was very much a once-in-a-lifetime coming-together of people who were eager to be in each other’s presence, and I think probably the pandemic had a part to play in that. We had been so tired of being cooped up but also, we were seeking connection and community, and for a year we had that with these people.”
The resulting film, Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, is actually the first longform project that Jacob and Manon have worked on together. Beforehand, they’ve worked on one another’s personal art projects, developing, in Manon’s words, “a lot of respect for each other’s work, which was very helpful doing this kind of project.”
“It meant that we were on the same page. We understood how the other worked, each other’s sensibilities and trusted in the other’s sensibilities and artistic vision and creativity.”
“Every now and then we had additional crew members coming and helping out here and there, but for the most part, it really was the two of us,” adds Jacob.
“You have to be so unified as a two-person team, because it’s incredible, in every sense – emotionally, creatively, technically – you’re in the middle of Tuscany on a sheep farm and something with the camera or sound equipment goes wrong, you’re really out there crouching in the corner on YouTube desperately trying to work out what’s going on with a piece of obscure equipment.”
Now well over halfway through their year-long festival run, Jacob says that seeing how Two Strangers plays to different audiences in different countries is “fascinating”.
“Obviously every audience is a unique combination of people and has its own energy, and it’s been great seeing how it feels in different parts of the world. How relatable Maggie and Joel’s story is to so many people.
“This is really a simple human story of love and mortality and ageing and belonging, and what it is to belong. Beyond being an artist couple, it’s how to respect yourself and your partner as a human being, and that’s such a universal thing that we’ve seen audiences around the world connect with.”
Alongside the festival run, Two Strangers is slated for a theatrical release in the UK next year from 21 March 2025, and will also be appearing on the small screen in Denmark, Sweden and Norway.
To close, Jacob and Manon deliver their respective pieces of advice.
“Grow a team,” Manon begins. “Have a collaborator that you trust, and take the time to get to know each of the people that you’re studying with. Understand their skill sets. And play together!”
“I would suggest to people not to get too invested in what they envision their future careers to be,” adds Jacob. “Combining talent and ambition with the unknown lands you in a far more interesting and less frustrating place than having a particular wish list of all the films you want to achieve and trying to knock them down. It doesn’t work like that.
“I would encourage people to – if you have talent and ambition – jump and let the wind carry you. Don’t try to focus on making this masterpiece that’s in your head, because fulfilment and happiness don’t come from that.”
