Private Project

Free Color

FREE COLOR is the story of a great artist obsessed by his most impossible work of art: to free color from form.

FREE COLOR journeys together with The Master of Color, Venezuelan-born Kinetic and Optical Artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, who at 94 hopes to at last create his greatest artistic challenge: An autonomous phenomenon of ‘cromosaturation’, a cloud space of color-with-no-form, over the Seine River, in Paris.

Only just now made even imaginable by ever-shifting advances in technology, Cruz-Diez impassionedly recruits a team of innovators from across disciplines to help make the artist’s dream come to life within the instability of reality.

But can technology evolve fast enough for his dream to become the ephemeral art he seeks to be?

  • Alberto Arvelo
    Director
    The Liberator
  • Leonardo Henríquez
    Writer
    Bleeder
  • Gabriela Camejo
    Producer
    Guaco: Semblanza
  • Gabriel Cruz Mendoza
    Producer
  • Paula Manzanedo-Schmit
    Producer
    In the Clouds
  • Carlos Cruz-Diez
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Edgar Ramírez
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
    "The Assassination of Gianni Versace". American Crime Story
  • Spyridon Michalakis
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
    Avengers: Endgame
  • Seamus Blackley
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
    Jurassic Park: Trespasser
  • Gabriel Cruz Mendoza
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Adriana Cruz
    Key Cast
    "Herself"
  • Carlitos Cruz Delgado
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Jorge Cruz Delgado
    Key Cast
    "Himself"
  • Gustavo Dudamel
    Original Music by
    The Liberator
  • Nascuy Linares
    Original Music by
    Embrace of the Serpent
  • Devendra Banhart
    Original Music by
    Joshy
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 7 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    August 17, 2019
  • Production Budget:
    403,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    United States
  • Country of Filming:
    France, Panama, United States, Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of
  • Language:
    English, French, Spanish
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    1.85
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
  • Palm Springs International Film Festival
    Palm Springs, CA
    United States
    January 4, 2020
    World Premiere
    Official Selection
  • Miami International Film Festival
    Miami, Florida
    United States
    March 6, 2020
    East American Premiere
    Official Selection
  • SCAD - Savanna Film Festival
    Savannah
    United States
    October 28, 2020
    Georgia Premiere
    Best Editing
  • Santa Fe Independent Film Festival
    Santa Fe
    United States
    October 14, 2020
    New Mexican Premiere
    Official Selection
Director Biography - Alberto Arvelo

Venezuelan director and writer. His most recent film, "The Liberator", stars Édgar Ramírez, Danny Huston, Iwan Rheon, Gary Lewis, and María Valverde; script by Timothy Sexton, music by Gustavo Dudamel. "The Liberator" is the first Venezuelan film ever shortlisted for the Academy Awards. His film "A House with a View of the Sea", Cannes Festival official selection, was acknowledged with 23 international awards. His documentary "Guaco: Semblanza", was nominated in 2017 for the Latin Grammy Awards. Arvelo has directed three multi-media operas for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra: "Cantata Criolla", "Midsummer Nights Dreams" and "The Creation'. "Cantata Criolla", was leaded played by Helen Hunt and Edgar Ramírez, script by Guillermo Arriaga, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. "Midsummer Night Dreams" at the Hollywood Bowl, was narrated by Brice Dallas Howard and some years later showed at Princeton University in a special concert conducted by Dudamel with the Princeton Orchestra.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Making a documentary about one of the geniuses of modern art entails a responsibility and an obvious challenge: the documentary itself must be made from the same arcane as the work we are trying to reflect. How to transmit a concept as complex as that of color without form? How to take the viewer to this abstract and emotional journey?  The answer to these questions has been given to me by Cruz-Diez himself: “A documentary about my work is a documentary about color”. FREE COLOR is a visual journey into the bowels of color, wherever that may be: in a sunflower field, in a constellation, in the reflection in a bottle or... in an impossible work of art, which is the theme of FREE COLOR. This is a documentary that has an inspiring race against time imbedded in its DNA. It is a real ticking clock moved by the fact that it is now, at 94, that Cruz-Diez undertakes the most challenging work of his life. This is a film about the importance of perseverance and passion.