color theories Synopsis

Color Theories is an experimental narrative short that explores grief and transformation through a poetic exploration of the Visual Light Spectrum and a realization of the depths of our interconnectivity within the fabric of reality.  The story focuses on how first menstruation is a rite of passage for carrying the cycles of life and the questions that arise in our hearts when facing loss/change.  Making this film allowed me to explore narrative storytelling experimentally without disregarding traditional story structure. There are two stories happening across the movie. One is the straight narrative that follows Charlotte as she grapples with her mothers stroke and her changing body. The other narrative is symbolic and follows an exploration of the color spectrum. Each color appears in the film in correlation with theories and folklore about how different colors interact with and motivate our experience of being human. The story begins with the color red reinforcing that we all came here through a woman’s body, and the film ends with violet, a color said to represent our inner vision and dreams for ourselves, one another, and all that may come to pass in our lifetimes. The symbolic narrative helps drive the emotional arc of the character.

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The film investigates how some of the biggest challenges we are forced to face, are also often our most potent opportunities for cultivating wisdom and perpetuating growth. How can we stay centered within the challenges of our lives and ultimately expand instead of contract? Color Theories doesn't rely on stereotypical coming of age story tropes, but rather explores how wisdom is born during some of our most difficult and confusing experiences. Entering puberty is such a wild time where everything we knew in life is suddenly turned upside down. Beginning to menstruate, getting a bra, and inserting a tampon are new and bizarre challenges that young women face and overcome while their bodies transition. Like so many things in life, we have no choice but to walk straight into and through that transformation. First menstruation is just one example of a time when women face a total transformation. There are many throughout all of our lives. So although the film centers on puberty, Color Theories considers that "coming of age" happens multiple times across our lives.

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This film is a semi-autobiographical recreation of my own coming of age experience. My mother suffered a stroke and complicated brain surgery the winter before I got my first period. Entering early adulthood during a family crisis had a unique impact on the trajectory of my life and work as an artist. During this time I questioned the traditional Religious beliefs I had been raised with and found solace in an emerging sense of our interconnectivity with one another, ourselves, and the natural world. Through my mothers healing process, I began to notice deep and subtle aspects of our individual presence,  the details around me, the colors, the sweet smells in the air, and the way it felt to be in a body beneath the stars. I also began to realize that my mother, all of my family, and all people everywhere belong to a much larger story.  I began to see that my body and all women's bodies were a sort of gateway to experiencing this collective story we share. These realizations didn't suddenly remove my grief, but it did teach me how to live with a new level of awe for everything and for everyone. This has stayed with me my whole life since. I think filmmaking is a unique medium that provides artists the opportunity to explore and express poetic aspects of life.