Film-maker Emir Kumova delves into personal experience to address a sensitive subject in the short drama WAR OF COLORS.
Film And TV Now spoke with the film-maker about the short.
FILM AND TV NOW: This film is such a great leveller and sobering experience for anybody who watches it. What was the start off point for the script?
EMIR KUMOVA: Thank you very much. Two different situations, gave me the idea for the film. First one being; I have vitiligo since fifteen years old. A skin condition where your pigments die and that part of the skin turns white (vitiligo is a different skin condition than albinism).
As a result of this, I ended up having a white eyelash and a partially white mustache. And I would dye them to black so I could look like the majority of people and avoid the endless questions about my white spots from strangers in daily life. The second incident was; I witnessed a black person being told that they were not “real Black” because of their lighter skin tone.
This was told to them by both a non-Black person and a Black person with a darker skin tone, on separate time and occasions. Combining these racial incidents that I witnessed and my own separate struggle with my skin condition; the idea of the struggle that Black people with fully white skin must go through in their daily lives, popped into my head.
I was not too knowledgeable about the topic and started my research. When I realized that this was a bigger issue that people go through than what I thought, I wanted to tell this story and give voice to people who have albinism.
FTVN: The film also goes into the deep undercurrent of what albinism represents for those affected. How has your own perception changed from making this short?
EK: Before embarking on the journey of this film, my knowledge about Albinism was similar to most people. I knew very little about the community and the struggle albinism brings to people who have it.
What I learned about Albinism made my vision and knowledge broader. Majority of People With Albinism (PWA) get a really rough ride, and it’s even worse in their teens. I came across to handful of PWA who are very happy about having it. Everyone’s experience is different with albinism; it really depends on the social environment and how educated or not the society one is in is, when forming psychological struggles of albinism.
It is very crucial for parents to teach at a young age to their kids not to discriminate.
With the right education to society, PWA can have a place in society same as people without the condition. PWA can also achieve a successful life just like anybody else can, with the right support from childhood.
FTVN: Tell us about your cast.
EK: The lead, Diandra Forrest, is an actress/model based in New York, along with the lead supportive actor Curtis J McDaniel – whom I reached out to both during my research and thought they looked perfect for the parts and it worked out from that point. Other extremely talented supportive actors; Adam Mendez Jr. and Wil Santiago are both LA based actors.
The younger self of Diandra’s character, Olivia, was from Denver Colorado and I reached out to her mother after finding them on a Facebook support group for Albinism.
FTVN: Tell us about your production team.
EK: I was lucky enough to work with very talented people in my production team. I worked with a lot of them on my previous short too. People who are based in Los Angeles and are well seasoned in their fields in the industry. Chris Kistan, very talented cinematographer and a close friend, from South Africa; David Gutel greatly talented assistant director from LA to name a couple.
FTVN: Where did you shoot and for how long?
EK: We shot in Los Angeles area. The shooting days were for 4 days.
FTVN: Where can people go to learn more about albinism and gain support?
EK: Information is available all throughout the internet for people to gain detailed knowledge about the topic. National Organization for Albinism is one:
There are also many support groups online (eg. Facebook groups) for people with Albinism to share their stories and to consult personal things related to albinism.
FTVN: You are Turkish in origin. How has your cultural perception changed since moving to Los Angeles in 2011 and what is so special about the city in your eyes?
EK: It didn’t change necessarily, but it definitely showed me a different perspective and cultural elements and added to my knowledge and view of the world. Experiencing a culture where there is freedom of speech in terms of art standpoint, it is appealing.
Coming from middle east, being in a melting pot where there is so much diversity and background was also new to me and I liked that a lot. However also the first time I was really exposed to race and discrimination in my adult life where I experienced or witnessed incidents on a different level.
In terms of film, LA is a good place to get your foot in the filmmaking world and establish your network. It’s a city full of resources when it comes to production and post production. So in terms of that it is a unique spot.
FTVN: Are there plans to show the film to charities and political representatives to raise awareness of the ongoing challenges?
EK: It is a long-term goal of course to reach a wide of an audience as we can. Nothing set in place or confirmed at this moment in terms of specific charities or political individuals.
FTVN: Who and what are your key cinematic influences?
EK: There are many directors whose work I love for different reasons and styles but mainly for storytelling; Scorsese, Tarantino, Nolan, Guy Ritchie, Jordan Peele to name a few. I pushed hard to be able to get lot of scenes handheld (especially the speech at the end) as that gives more of a realist feel to the scene in my opinion and helps the audience really be in the moment. Definitely something that influenced me from similar themed stories and the way they were shot.
FTVN: What issues and themes are you keen to explore in your future work?
EK: Speaking of, War of Colors can definitely be feature (mentioned below). If the opportunity presents itself, I would be excited to pursue that project. Other than that, I would be interested in exploring psychological themes and topics in films. Real life stories and events are topics that interest me a lot, I believe such films have different kind of energy to them, where the audience is able to visit different time periods, people, locations, events etc. that are impossible to otherwise.
FTVN: Would you be interested in expanding on the ideas and themes explored in this short into a feature idea?
EK: Most definitely. War of Colors can definitely be a feature film. There is so much to tell, show, and educate in the same topic that a short film length is very limited to do so. And it is possible to explore these themes and elements with different types of storylines or even combine them, as there are many different experiences when it comes to such topics.
FTVN: How has the festival circuit helped your film?
EK: The film did not receive the support it was looking for from the festival arena unfortunately. However, the festivals that screened the film conduced it to be seen on the big screen and reached a wider audience of course, which is every filmmaker’s dream.
FTVN: Finally, what are you most proud of about this short?
EK: Well, initially, being able to see the finished film on the big screen when it was just an idea in my head a year ago makes me feel proud of the accomplishment that we achieved with the whole team.
The positive messages and the comments I received just from the trailer so far, from people I never met, confirmed for me that I did a right thing: giving the community a voice. And that made feel proud being able to touch people’s hearts.
Now I hope that the film can be seen by a wider audience so that ‘voice’ we tried to create can actually be heard and seen and hopefully cause a positive message.
