Twins

Directed by Martin Bell

There are few things in life that engage the eye or are more mesmerising than identical twins. Every aspect of their appearance is remarkable from the exact duplication of their features right down to the exact position of their freckles. Each year in August, Twinsburg, Ohio, is host to a festival that attracts almost 2000 twins, triplets and quadruplets. It is an extraordinary gathering that Mary Ellen Mark and Martin Bell visited in the summer of 2001-2002 . Martin Bell made Twins in the summer of 2002, while Mary Ellen Mark was completing the photography for her book Twins. Mark’s studio was a tent, pitched on a volleyball court, at the Twins Days Festival in Twinsburg, Ohio. When Mark finished photographing a set of twins, they were directed to a small studio behind the backdrop. The twins were interviewed in front of two cameras. The interviews were guided by a set of twenty questions, which Mark and Bell developed to provide a structure for the film.