Description: Shot on location near Montreal, this video shows – split on two linguistic layers - two aspects of
thread in meeting an unknown on an escalator: a physical and a visual thread. The visual thread shows how we perceive each other as a thread for our own psychological
stability, based on a confrontation between “symbols of luck and happiness”. Symbols, such
as beauty, social position and happiness in relationship and family. This thread is experienced on
a very mental and intimate way, and is represented in the video by excerpts of audio interviews
with two Francophone man and one Anglophone woman from Montreal about their way to
experience visual confrontation. The physical thread, expressed through a meeting between two
people in a desolate landscape, shows the human necessity to valuate the unknown’s physical
attributes in order to guarantee one’s own safety. Niccoli has decided to substitute the escalator
with a hiking trail, a “Path”, in order to underline the archaic and human aspect of self-protection.
