A celebration of color guards
“Contemporary Color” is a concert documentary that celebrates the gathering of 10 color guards — flag-spinning, rifletossing squads that perform impressively choreographed routines to original songs from the likes of David Byrne and Nelly Furtado. The results are often dazzling, yet somehow distant.
Directors Bill and Turner Ross eschew scenes of the considerable preparations that go into this discipline and instead focus on the final performances — under one roof, and all in different styles. In following only the climactic event, the brainchild of Byrne, the filmmakers provide a formidable sensory experience, but with so many performers, we are left without a solid narrative thread.
Still, there is plenty to enjoy in the spectacle of it all, as the young people take to the stage at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center for what probably will be their last hurrah as color guards. But we get only snippets of individuals, and sometimes the stage singers overwhelm the color guards. We can’t help but feel that some of the emotional heft of the students’ once-in-a-lifetime experience has been left on the editing room floor.
Perhaps the greatest joy of “Contemporary Color” is seeing how color guards seem to be open to everyone, of every color, shape, size, gender and sexual orientation. It’s a world where outcasts can fit in and enjoy the camaraderie that is part of team sports. And even though we don’t get to know the young performers very well, it’s rewarding to see them pass their test with flying colors.