And for Pasi \u2014 a filmmaker whose creative juices are always flowing \u2014 it was a movie. So he turned it into one.<\/p>\n
Pasi has written, directed and produced \u201cThe Archivist,\u201d a short film about a young curator whose obsession with a photo leads him to the woman who was photographed and changes both of their lives in the process.<\/p>\n
Pasi started the moviemaking process in the summer of 2014. After writing the script, he had to line up a film crew. With a modest budget of $3,000, the film was shot in four days in Dayton and Cincinnati.<\/p>\n
Pasi is currently getting some original music from a local band to finish up the soundtrack. A movie trailer is expected to be ready by the end of March.<\/p>\n
The plot involves a young archivist who, after finding the woman\u2019s photo, tracks her down at an art gallery in New York City. She is a widow in her late 60s lamenting the passing of her youth. He is a historian who thinks about the past more than the present or future. The two have dinner together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey each love the past and are kind of stuck in the past,\u201d Pasi said. \u201cOver the course of this evening, they take a step forward and engage in the present.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Gino](\"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/files\/2015\/07\/gino-pasi-15946-011-508x338.jpg\")
<\/a>An image from Special Collections and Archives inspired Wright State archivist Gino Pasi to make a movie. (Photo by Will Jones)<\/p><\/div>\n
Some of the scenes were shot in Wright State’s Dunbar Library<\/a> and other campus locations. There are also scenes at the Dayton Visual Arts Center, the Color of Energy Gallery, Dorothy Lane Market and Salar, a restaurant in Dayton\u2019s Oregon District.<\/p>\n The female lead is played by Columbus actress Josie Merkle. Tyler Henry, a Dayton transplant from Nashville, plays the male lead. Also with parts in the film are Dayton actress Shyra Thomas; Mandy Shannon, Dunbar Library\u2019s reference librarian; and Wright State theatre student Julia Gomez.<\/p>\n It is the second film Pasi has produced, written and directed. The first was one called \u201cAn Unusual Likeness.\u201d<\/p>\n Pasi grew up in the small western Pennsylvania town of Brockway, home to a glass factory and surrounded by steel mills. His father was a truck driver, and his mother worked in a bakery.<\/p>\n Pasi remembers getting hooked on movies at a young age.<\/p>\n \u201cMy father and I would watch these Biblical epics, like \u2018The Robe\u2019 or \u2018Barabbas.\u2019 The next day I would be dressing up in a toga and trying to recite monologues from the film,\u201d he said. \u201cThen it became a thing. It was always a part of my makeup.\u201d<\/p>\n Pasi finally worked up enough nerve to go on stage, taking a small part in a play his senior year at Brockway Area High School.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I had seven lines; I botched them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n After high school, Pasi began doing stand-up comedy in the Pittsburgh area. Then in 1990, the 19-year-old left for New York City and went to an acting conservatory, the American Academy for Dramatic Arts.<\/p>\n He later attended Messiah College in eastern Pennsylvania, getting his bachelor\u2019s degree in history. But he still had the theater bug, so he worked for Kent State University\u2019s professional summer theater and then moved back to New York City, where for the next few years he performed in several plays and touring productions.<\/p>\n But history was beckoning Pasi as a career.<\/p>\n So he got his master\u2019s degree in American studies from Penn State University and landed a job with Pennsylvania\u2019s state historical organization.<\/p>\n Then in 2007, he was hired by Wright State to do oral histories for the Dunbar Library on Cold War aerospace engineers who had worked at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. He later became an archivist\/collections manager.<\/p>\n Pasi\u2019s primary duty is to make contact with potential collection donors and evaluate their papers, photos, diaries and other materials for possible inclusion in the library’s Special Collections and Archives.<\/p>\n \u201cI like going to people\u2019s basements or their attics or their businesses and talking with people who may not think what they have is valuable,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I often tell them we are interested in this stuff and that it will be historically significant, if not now, 50 years from now.\u201d<\/p>\n One day, Pasi found a package on his desk mailed from a suburb outside of Boston. It was from a man who told him that a nanny who had taken care of his family for years had recently died and left diaries, letters, photos and news clippings from her brother. The brother was Raoul Lufbery, a French-American fighter pilot and flying ace in World War I with 17 combat victories.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got a world-class aviation history archive,\u201d said Pasi. \u201cThere is not a day that goes by that something fascinating doesn\u2019t cross your desk \u2014 something from the Wright brothers to Charles F. Kettering. Every day you\u2019re holding something in your hand that not a lot of people get to see on a regular basis.\u201d<\/p>\n Pasi said working in the archives, which is headed by Dawne Dewey and has more than 700 collections of historical documents and artifacts, inspired him to make the movie.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are thousands of stories in these collections,\u201d he said. \u201cYou can read diaries, and the ideas begin to marinate, start clicking. It\u2019s just a very inspiring place creatively to work.\u201d<\/p>\n Pasi acknowledges that “The Archivist” will not appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no zombie apocalypse, there is no car chase, there is no shootout,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a small, short film about two people who find it hard to move on with their lives. Though not for everyone, I think its appeal will be broad because I think there are issues that are collective to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n Learn more about “The Archivist\u201d on the film’s Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" An image from Special Collections and Archives inspires Wright State archivist Gino Pasi to make a movie. Continue reading