The Colorado

2016

Film

Archive

Places / Environment

Commissioned by The Met Museum and Houston Da Camera. Choral Eco-Documentary. Words by conservationist William deBuys, directed by Murat Eyuboglu.

Listen, stream and purchase the Colorado film soundtrack here.
Visit the Project Colorado Official Website

THE COLORADO is a purely visual documentary accompanied by original music, exploring water, land and survival in the Colorado River Basin. The project is conceived as equal parts, documentary film, live performance event, and an educational tool for classrooms.

THE COLORADO consists of ten episodes, providing windows onto the history of the region through the perspectives of actual and imaginary characters.

An Indian story-teller mixing legend with geology, a Jesuit padre crossing the Colorado River to settle the argument whether or not California is an island, an out of work acrobat working as a high-scaler at Hoover Dam, and an undocumented migrant worker working in the fertile fields irrigated by the Colorado River are among the cast of characters.

The Colorado River is an aquatic thread to this seemingly disconnected sequence of episodes, both across time and space.

The collaborative team of THE COLORADO includes John Luther Adams, William Brittelle, Paola Prestini, Sarah Kirkland Snider and Shara Worden as composers; Sylvestre Campe, David Sarno, and Murat Eyoboglu as filmmakers; Mustafa Ziyalan as lyricist, and the historian and conservationist William deBuys as the general advisor of the project. His book Salt Dreams: Land and Water in low-down California is one of the main inspirations of this project.

THE COLORADO stands alone as a documentary film intended for broadcasting and theatrical release. There is also a live traveling version of THE COLORADO, where the film component is integral to the concert performances.

The project is also accompanied by a study guide, designed for secondary and higher education. Once exposed to a holistic history of the Colorado River Basin, students will be guided to develop their own projects, exploring different regions.

The mission of THE COLORADO is to create a cross-roads between art, ecology and regional history, while sensitizing audiences to pressing issues of our times. A VisionIntoArt production, in collaboration with New Amsterdam Projects.



Format

Feature Documentary Film; Live Performance & Film; Album

Collaborators

Composers: John Luther Adams, William Brittelle, Paola Prestini, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Glenn Kotche and Shara Worden / Filmmakers: Murat Eyoboglu, Sylvestre Campe, David Sarno / Lyricist: Mustafa Ziyalan / Research & Advising: William deBuys

Funders and Partners

Commissioned by The Met Museum and Houston Da Camera

Press

"visually captivating and unsettling"
"performed by some of the most innovative soundsmiths around"

The New York Times

"A multidimensional portrait... alternately spectral, dazzling, ugly, and phenomenal."

Pasatiempo

"a striking, thoughtful and cautionary piece of art"

Houston Chronicle

"emotionally and intellectually rich"

Nature