Director's Statement

COLORS OF THE SUN began long before a camera was ever turned on.

Its origins reach back to 1985, when I was a newcomer to the Albuquerque community and lost my best friend, Robert, to AIDS. Before he died, Robert asked me to write his eulogy. He read my eulogy for him, and then made me promise to find the stories of others…to listen, to record, and to remember. As he said to me, “Everyone has a story.”

I made that promise.

That promise became my purpose.

Over the course of ten months, I interviewed 351 people in Albuquerque whose lives had been changed…or shattered…by AIDS. They told me things they had never said aloud. They trusted me with their memories, their secrets, and their heartbreak at a time when most of the world preferred to look away.

Nearly forty years later, those voices still live inside me.

COLORS OF THE SUN is my attempt to honor them.

This film is not a recreation of history; it is a preservation of it. It is a cinematic act of remembrance shaped by the courage, humor, loneliness, and resilience of real people who lived and loved through a time defined by fear and loss. Many of the individuals I spoke with in 1985 are no longer alive. The few who remain sent messages to our cast, reminding us that these stories matter now more than ever.

We made this film with no budget, no traditional crew, and no certainty that we could finish. What we did have was heart, determination, and a cast who believed in the mission as deeply as I did.

This film exists because people cared enough to make it exist.

COLORS OF THE SUN is not only about the AIDS crisis; it is about the people who survived long enough to tell their stories, and the people who didn’t. It is about chosen family, untold grief, unexpected love, and the small everyday acts of bravery that kept our community alive. Above all, it is about remembering those who were forgotten, erased, or ignored.

I promised Robert I would listen.

I promised those 351 people I would tell their stories.

This film is my way of keeping those promises.

Edward D Padilla, Director/Writer