The Color of Love

[epispastic]

Anyone seen this short?  I first saw it at a festival and it was the most uncomfortable moment of my entire life.  After it was over I realized that the whole point/main idea was to make people feel uneasy with themselves and their inabilities to cope with taboos.  Any opinions?

And i'd like to say hello.

-Christina

[Ghostboy]

No, but you make it sound awesome. Any more details available?

[epispastic]

I saw it a long time ago, when I was about 14.

It starts out as silent b&W porn with 2 ladies and a guy.  the footage appears to be splatter-painted.  Then it slowly begins to pan from the bottom of the bed to the top, and 1/2 way through, you realize the guy is dead.  And not "im wearing makeup to look dead", but deceased with embalming fluid all over the sheets and gashes in his body.  The lecture after the film explained that the filmmaker hadn't shot the footage herself but 'found it' and then splatter-painted it.  

when they asked for audience comments we all froze and looked at the floor.  If anyone made eye-contact with anyone else they became flushed and hid underneath their jackets.

I wanted to die, nobody had any idea what to do.  were we supposed to walk out?  were we supposed to pretend like we found out a way to see it as deep/moving?    

We were told that the main idea was to make us insecure about our ideas of sexuality.  We were supposed to become frustrated with our inability to make a conclusion.  And at 14, the short did just that.

I wish someone else had seen it.

[Ghostboy]

I did some quick detective work and pulled up some info on it. It was directed by Peggy Ahwash in 1995. She seems to be a pretty well known/respected experimental artist. Although of all the websites I've skimmed, none have made 'Color Of Love' sound as disturbing as you did. I'm gonna have to see it....

[epispastic]

Yes, now that you mention it, the name does sound familiar.

Do check it out.

Maybe it was because I was 14 and just starting to discover alternative cinema that it was so shocking to me.  I remember waiting for my ride to come get me and looking at my friend who was with me (it was the first time we had ever hungout outside of school, and it was a boy, which adds a weird tension to it) and saying "ok.  um.... I didn't know that was going to happen, and, it isnt a common thing for me. . . ok?  seriously.  i wasn't freaked out or anything. . . . are you?. . . because I. Am. Not."

[Pedro]

Wow....any ideas as to where I could find it?

[epispastic]

I have no idea.  I remember seeing it for sale in a Facets catalogue right after I saw it, but, it was a while ago.