“Ars Colonia” is an experimental, 1:12 minute short that was commissioned by IFFR in 2011 and was screened before all films supported by IFFR's Hubert Bals Fund.
“Ars Colonia” is streaming on Metrograph, as part of the Kalampag Tracking Agency Shorts Program
The short is split into two parts. The first part focuses on a conquistador who is fixing his gaze on the island that he is about to conquer. Actually, the camera alternates between a series of islands and the sky, which changes a number of colors, including brown and a rather intense reddish pink. The second part consists of a kind of animation one could say, as color explosions fill the screen, resulting in a series of abstract images, including ones with polka dots, while the screen changes colors almost constantly.
Implementing the style of early silent movies, which were frequently hand-colored, Raya Martin presents a surrealistic story essentially, of what would happen if the 16th century conquistadores actually had hand-held camera with them, in a concept that is intriguing also because it allows the film to unfold as a found-footage one. The shaky screen, the bad quality of the images and the extreme film speed also point towards the same direction.
The second part on the other hand is more abstract, essentially a kind of filmic exercise, which would be quite interesting to learn how Martin managed to present this type of movement on screen, which seems to be a procedure of hand coloring film material. The shaky screen and the rapid speed remain however, essentially making the whole short one that demands multiple viewings in order for someone to understand its whole content. Perhaps that was Martin's purpose all along.
