'Color Me', Unnerving New Short From Martin De Thurah
At times you find yourself on a dark road in a deep black valley. It is hard to orient yourself. You vaguely recall who you are, but it is hard to completely grasp, you have to lay down to dissolve into the ground.
We all contain darkness. A door to a strange place, where the world falls apart and becomes unrecognizable. A floaty reality, almost dreamlike.
How do we respond when we have to face our own fears and mortality, and is it possible to find tranquility within the world of our nightmares?
These are some of the themes explored by the new art project Color Me, a collaboration between Danish director Martin de Thurah and Active Child, the musical alias of American singer, songwriter and producer Patrick Grossi.
De Thurah has combined sculpting, live-action recordings and visual effects with the trembling and distorted sound of Active Child’s track ”Color Me” to create a haunting and visually innovative film - one of his most ambitious projects to date.
“I wanted to make something frightening, and I know it is very hard. To create a film in which someone was physically penetrated by their own anxiety. In a gentle way, with a lot of love and the possibility of healing,” Martin de Thurah says.
For Patrick Grossi the project echoes an attempt to grasp the sadness and hope of life.
”It is hard to be human. Our capacity to feel can be overwhelming. But how we process great emotion and crippling anxiety is what sets us apart. My own fear of death has been with me since I was boy. My fear of a complete end, a full stop, like going to sleep, it haunts me. It lives within me and takes shape in my dreams. It is why my music much of the time is an attempt to reconcile with the existence of a spiritual world,” Grossi says.
The creation of Color Me began in 2019 and as Martin de Thurah worked tirelessly with his team to form the right expression, the global pandemic changed the world and added layers of meaning and relevance to the film. The result is an emotional and visceral experience, which demands the attention and reflection of its spectators.