At Home with Mystic

Fashion photographers Julian Ungano and Tommy Agriodimas are best known for their work with magazines like Vogue Italia, CR Fashion Book, and Harper’s Bazaar, and brands such as Ralph Lauren, Stella McCartney, and Nike, but they are also budding filmmakers. “Making films is taking a huge chance,” said Agriodimas of the duo’s decision to release their first short, And After All, in 2013. This weekend, the duo, who go by U+A, released a second short film, At Home with Mystic, at the Tribeca Grand, hosting a private screening and party at the hotel’s theater. The film tells the story of a schoolteacher (Josh Helman) from Mystic, Connecticut, who goes to visit a girl (Annabelle Dexter Jones) in Chicago. Agriodimas was the film’s director of photography, and Ungano directed and co-wrote the script with his cousin, Jordan Blumetti, who also starred in And After All. All three were on hand to discuss the film, which was based on Blumetti’s own experience visiting an ex in Chicago. He kept in contact with Ungano throughout the trip, and began to document everything over e-mail. “I told [Blumetti] to pretend I was his therapist and just let it fly,” said Ungano. “Once he sent the emails, I started treatments of the script and started incorporating some of my own past experiences.” A true collaboration, indeed.