 Hello, everyone. I'm James Milan. Welcome to this annual AIFF ritual, which we really enjoy here at ACMI. I am going to be speaking with Elena Mathis, who is this year's winner, the 2021 winner of the AIFFs. That being, of course, the Arlington International Film Festival, AIFF's poster contest. And as you can see, Elena is joining me in the studio. So first of all, really happy to have you here. Hi. Really, thanks for coming and also thanks for your work. We are going to be referring to your work more specifically in another few minutes after we talk for a little bit. And we'll actually bring the poster itself out because you can see more of what you've put into it that way. So, but that's in a couple of minutes. Let me first ask you, you know, obviously you're being recognized and honored in this sense for your art. So how long has art been, you know, a big part of your life? I mean, honestly, forever, you know, since I can remember, which I feel like is the typical artist kind of story. And yeah, definitely like, you know, like as a little kid, I love to draw on stuff. Is that how it started drawing? Yeah, you know, just sort of like learning how to draw one thing and then drawing it over and over and over again. And all that kind of on your own? Or did you also like, were you taking art classes in different media as a little, you know, as a young student? I mean, mostly on my own, you know, like obviously like the occasional art class in school. When I was a really young kid, I switched schools a lot. So it was sort of like, you know, it was a little chaotic in terms of like, you know, who was teaching me art. Right. You couldn't find a mentor, for instance, if you're constantly shifting schools. Yeah, you and I were talking a little bit before we went on camera about the fact that, you know, I was sharing with you also that I also grew up as, you know, as a child and a teenager going to a lot of different schools, moving around to different places. It's pretty disorienting. And a lot of the times you've got to, you know, if you can find things that help you to navigate those transitions, you know, it's a great thing. For me, a lot of time it was sports, which helped me to get into a new community well. I know that you moved from Baltimore, where you'd been living for a long time, right? At about the age of 14 up here to the Boston area, to the western suburbs and to Subur, I think, right? Yep. So that couldn't have been easy. Again, as a 14-year-old, it's tough to move into a new school. It's tough to move into a, you know, a kind of rural environment for suburban Boston. Any effect on your art or any way that art had an influence or an impact, you know, on that whole transition? Well, I mean, definitely, it was definitely important for me at that time. Basically, when we moved, we came in sort of halfway through the school year and didn't start me until the next year. So I had sort of a chunk of a couple months where I didn't, you know... You didn't know anybody, you didn't have any schedule? I couldn't, you know, couldn't really go anywhere. So I really just, you know, spent all that time, like, you know, in my room doing art. I wasn't very happy, but I did a lot of art. Right. Well, that, again, is not an entirely unfamiliar thing, right? You know, out there in the world of artists. Well, let me ask you, actually, about perhaps not being happy but yet doing art. You, like everybody that I know who's been in college in the last couple of years, you know, you've paid a price, as we all have for the pandemic, but college students have missed, in a lot of ways, fundamental parts of what should be the college experience because of this. I'm wondering, for a school, and you go to Mass College of Art and Design, so at a place like Mass Art where you have a bunch of creative people working in different media, et cetera, and I assume a lot of projects for your classes that are individual creative projects. How, you know, as well as you could identify it, how has it been, basically, for the last couple of years for you? Well, I mean, it definitely was kind of difficult switching to remote. I mean, it sort of happened, like, exactly halfway through a year, and, you know, I had to go back to Sudbury and, like, set up a studio to do oil painting. I was in an oil painting class at the time, and I mean, I've always been good at getting my work done and, like, you know, being able to set up and keep working, sort of, no matter where I am. But it was definitely tough. I definitely missed out on sort of some of the community aspects but you get at Mass Art, like, there's an illustration sort of floor in one of the buildings that, you know, you can sign up to get a desk at, and I was going to do that for this year. And we should note that you're a junior, right? Yes, I'm a junior. Or maybe you're a rising senior at this point. Yeah, true. And so, like, and it's, honestly, and it's, like, it's a really, I don't know, it's a really big community thing, having a desk on. In the illustration floor. Yeah. And I never got to do that. Chance that you can in your senior year? Hopefully. I think it's all going to pretty much open back up. Right, right. No, I bet it's going to be possible. I just hope, I just, you know, assume that it's part, you can fit into your schedule or you can, you know, you'll be first in line, one assumes as a senior. So, so hopefully, again, you don't get to have that experience for as long as you'd like, but you'll have it, which is, you know, I hope that that works out well. I want to actually just shift our focus to why we're here, actually. Your, your winning design is, as I mentioned before, right here behind us. I didn't know if you wanted to say anything about it at this point, or we are going to take a short break and bring in the actual poster. How would you like to do that? I don't know. I mean, I'll tell you what, let's take a break. We can take a break. Let's take a break and bring in the poster and you can really, because people will see the three dimensionality of what it is that you've produced, which is clearly not the case with our monitor here. So, we will be right back and we will be delving more closely into Elena's work here. Hello, we are back with Elena Mathis, the this year's winner of the AIFF poster contest, and we are going to be delving into much more of the detail in the work and the vision that Elena shows. But as you can see, this is an actual, this is the physical copy, and I'm going to show you one of the things that's different, and that is, it is, there is a three dimensionality to what Elena has produced here. So, let me ask you first, Elena, how, my understanding, you're a mass art college student. I imagine this first came to your attention as a project for a class perhaps? Yeah, Bob Maloney, my teacher for this class, he, the class is called Experimental Illustration Techniques, where he teaches a lot of 3D and like collage type stuff. And, you know, I mean obviously like what we do in the end is all up to us, but definitely the 3D elements are, you know, that's, you know, that's his influence for sure. Okay, so does that mean that it's not a lot, you haven't done a lot of work, you know, with 3D kind of dimensionality to it in the past? I mean it's always been something that I'm interested in. I did this kind of thing a lot in high school, but I sort of had forgotten about it getting into college, which is why like when I saw that class, you know, I was like, oh, perfect, you know, now that I have more skill, let me try and do 3D stuff again. So take us through the elements and including just like whatever guidance you did, get, you know, whatever things you knew you had to include or not, and just talk us through the process of how you, you know, got from first thinking about it to this. Yeah, well, so basically the assignment that this was, you know, everyone in the class made one of these and submitted it, and sort of the parameters for the assignment was just it had to be 18 by 24, and it had to work as a film festival poster. We did not have to include any lettering, but that was pretty much it. Just it had to sort of work. Right, it had to work right. You're not going to, just not going to be pictures of swimming pools and things like that. Yeah, so, you know, most of, you know, sort of the first approach that people go to usually is like film camera, like film reel sort of imagery, and, you know, I started off sort of the sketching process with some of that sort of stuff, but that imagery isn't really stuff that I'm excited about. I'm much more into like, you know, funny little animals and like, you know, colors and, you know, organic shapes. So, you know, usually, you know, in this case and in general, I start to try to think about like, what would I be excited to make that would still work for this assignment? You know, one of the things that I am struck by, because as I was mentioning to you earlier, I have had the privilege of speaking to creators of winning posters for a number of years and certainly I've seen all of the posters for the 11-year history of the festival so far. And, you know, as I mentioned before, they don't look, others haven't looked like this before, so I love that as a fact itself. But also, here you have created, like you said, you know, funny little creatures or whatever, but what you've created is almost like a, you know, a character, a mascot for this year's festival at least, and that I have never seen before. Yeah, well, that's, you know, yeah, that's part of it, I'd say. Like, definitely, yeah, I definitely like making characters. I like making my art have sort of a personality, you know, that I can get really into, you know, or have some kind of story behind it in some way, even if it's just like thinking about, like, this funny little bird and, you know, what his personality is. So talk to us a little bit about this funny little bird. Do you have a little name for him or anything? No, I mean, the sort of thought process for this being the sort of character was sort of, I had heard that there tend to be documentaries at the film festival, and I was thinking about, like, oh, what kinds of documentaries have I seen that I really enjoyed, and I kept thinking about, like, nature documentaries. Some of the best ones, for sure. Yeah, and how some of the segments that I remember the most are ones where it's, like, some kind of silly looking bird that has some kind of, like, you know, fancy dance or something, and, you know, it's filmed and, like, talked about so seriously, but it's just like, you know. Right, exactly. It just makes you giggle. Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, that's the concept is sort of like, I can include cameras because everyone wants to film this bird, and, you know, there he is right in the middle, and, you know, he loves it, you know. Right, he's actually saying, look at me. Yeah, exactly. This is not an introvert bird it doesn't look like to me. Very good. So, like, did even arriving at this kind of sense that you would be placing that, well, first of all, so was bird the idea that you had for a character, was it going to be a bird, like, right from the get-go? Yeah, I mean, I definitely, I think another idea I had was that I thought was really cute as well, that it was going to be like someone in like a monster costume, like stomping around. But definitely, like, I think I needed a central character. One of the things that, to me, works really well also is that obviously you figured out how to make the shape of the bird conform very well with a great way to depict Arlington International Film Festival, to put those letters on there in a splay so that it works very well with the bird's feathers. You were saying you didn't have to put any text on here. Was that a later addition once you realized, oh, look at that lovely kind of circular space right in the middle of things. I can put Arlington International Film Festival there, or was that baked in right from the beginning? I mean, definitely in that particular idea it was in there from the beginning, because yeah, it's sort of like once I had the idea of having a central character, that's a lot of real estate. So, you know, definitely those were in my sketches of this guy from the beginning. That's great. And, you know, last thing is I got to ask you, how does it feel to go into a competition with your classmates in this case and come out the winner? Well, I mean, I was pretty surprised. I mean, I'm really happy to have won. I feel like looking at everybody's work, everyone did a really good job. Honestly, even looking at some of the previous posters and looking at other people's stuff, I went through and I was like, oh man, that one, that one's got a good shot. I've got some competition. So, I was really surprised. And I've never won anything like this before, so I'm really happy about it as well. Yes, congratulations really. That's wonderful. And I guess the very last thing I want to ask you is folks are not going to be able to... Well, this is the poster. So, it's going to be replicated as a poster and it's going to be, you know, it's going to have strong, strong local presence. It will be all up and down Mass Ave as it always is each year. But the Arlington International Film Festival's kind of logo for a year is a global phenomenon now. So, two parts to my last question. One is, do you feel like it will translate okay to that two-dimensionality of the poster and that the personality of your central character here will come through with that? And then, secondly, how does that feel to think that something that you've produced is actually going to have global reach? Well, I think it does translate pretty well into 2D. It is a little harder to tell that it is 3D, but definitely... I took the picture that's going to be the print and I tried to make sure there was a little shadow. If you look close enough, you can tell. And, you know, I think it works pretty well. And also, I mean, this is kind of the... Yeah, yeah. This is kind of... It's kind of my biggest accomplishment up until this point. You know, just in terms of, like, trying to be a professional artist. Yeah. Well, I mean, it might... It could open doors for you in the future. I hope it does because it's not a small distinction. You did very well. And again, the personality is so striking and so engaging. So, you did very, very... You know, if that was part of what you set out to do, mission accomplished in that way. Really good. All right. Well, anything else that you think that people should know or understand about the poster or this piece of art, which is not quite a poster? Well, hmm. It doesn't have to be. I mean, maybe there's not. I think, I guess, just that this is kind of, you know, cute little animals and stuff is the kind of thing that I draw in my spare time mostly. So, I don't know. It's just that being, like, the first thing that sort of professionally worked out for me is sort of a door open, I guess. And it's really... Yeah, I don't know. It's really encouraging. Like, the kind of thing that really grabs me and gets me excited and also is what people want to see. Right. And that is what validation is all about. So, enjoy it. Enjoy it. As I have enjoyed my conversation with Elena Mathis, the winner of this year's AIFF poster contest. You will find the poster, as I mentioned, all around town and just a reminder that it will be a virtual film festival again this year and coming in November we'll have more information for you as we get closer to it, of course. But we are proud here at ACMI to kind of have the latest iteration of our long-standing relationship with the Arlington International Film Festival. And I'm James Milan for Elena Mathis. Again, well done. We appreciate you being here and we'll see you next time.