Colorado Caliber

Francis is thirty-eight when he counts the final days of his life in prison before he faces the death penalty. When he was eighteen, he was responsible for a mass shooting in which several lives were lost. However, the public was never curious to approach the situation from his perspective, until an aspiring journalist, Layla, visits Francis to write the story of his life. By discussing with the reporter, Francis revisits the events that brought him to the day that changed the lives of the people in Colorado in the late 90s. Not many film genres can match the unbearable tension and the sober atmosphere of crime dramas in which the protagonists face the death sentence punishment. They often talk on two subjects – the social and the individual. The social lies in the moral dilemma of whether the system could take someone's life, and the individual lies in the sensitiveness of lost innocence. These films are the most valuable assets, as they talk about issues that rarely someone dares to.

I believe Colorado Caliber is a poignant story that dissects human nature and draws a psychological portrait of a man who can't ever redeem. By telling Francis's story I am making statements on the legal system, the ill-society and the social constructs that can break a man’s spirit. Plautus says, 'A man is no man, but a wolf to a stranger', and in a way, the quote can capture the essence of Francis's life story. We discover a wounded man who would never be allowed to heal, all while the hurting is unbearable. With the sensibility of Camus's 'The Stranger' and the works of Dostoevsky’s ‘White Nights’ or ‘Notes from the Underground’, as well as Victor Hugo’s ‘Last days of a condemned man’, Colorado Caliber is an existentialist piece. The inevitably complex story is supported by a protagonist who becomes the epitome of the anti-hero staple. Layla is the messenger who must spread the truth after Francis dies. However, the most interesting thing to notice is that Francis doesn’t intend to disguise the truth; he wants it to sound as raw and as uncomfortable. Soon, their conversation becomes a deadly game of cat and mouse. Thus, that's when the dialogue comes to enhance the conflict and to send information that can't be otherwise shown, besides the usage of the flashback device. The dialogue is specifically written; by using unique word choices and subtext. The dialogue escalates conflict, shows more than it tells, and becomes the illusion of actual speech rather than real speech, every time Francis decides to talk, we need to remain focused. Both the dialogue and the visual grammar culminate after the midpoint twist. Francis's lines show his angry side and the unsettling arrival of the inevitable. I believe the story becomes more dynamic as the execution day arrives. There, in the catharsis, the Priest visits Francis. In the absurdity, the guard tells him that he hasn’t filled the sheet for the final meal. Was God there when Francis was abused or the day he committed the crime? I hope you follow the ending with your mouths agape, and immediately upon turning the last page, you are prompted to return back and experience the journey all over again. Colorado Caliber goes against the ordinary narrative flows; I didn’t intend to use commercial components but stylistic choices and complex characterization to respect the otherwise promising concept. I intend this to be festival material that can impact people if done with creativity and vision the way I envision it to be. An important element of storytelling is showing compassion to characters that are easy to dismiss and villainize. I would hope this succeeds in giving life to one of the darkest American archetypes out there, and there is real tragedy in Francis's life, despite his terrible actions. Getting into the mind of a troubled young man, I would hope gives Francis's personality and emotional demons a lot of weight, and never resort to easy answers. The white, suburban American school shooter is such a charged figure both in fiction and in real life, so I was trying to present a three-dimensional kid, who the audience can be empathetic towards without glorifying his actions or revelling in the violence.

To summarize, we need stories like this, which speak on touching subjects such as sexual abuse, assault, violence, and retribution. I believe it is supported by a robust structuring and dynamic dramaturgy that's elevated by non-linearity. As a result, interested producers and companies have the possibility to acquire a mature project with recognizable artistic quality and production value, along the lines of ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘In Cold Blood’, ‘Capote’, ‘Network’ and ‘Dead Man Walking’ via the avenue of ‘Elephant’.