Chronicles of Contessa: The Mark of Devison (2013)

Short comic connected film from Pamela Paige is told in verse and possess a wonderful visual sense that blends variety styles to create something truly special...

The film tells the story of Devison who has stolen a reincarnation elixir from the planet Sayon and is using it to form his own evil army made up of souls from Earth. Fighting them is Contessa (played by director Paige) who is looking for payback for being beaten and raped.

Running a scant 16 minutes the film is not for all tastes, its violent, in verse and has nudity, three things that may rattle some audiences. For those who don't mind, the film is a really off the beaten track visual delight. A wonderful blending of genres (comic, scifi, horror, revenge) and visual styles (live action,animation, text) the film doesn't feel like most other films. I know I've seen other films that have tried to so something similar, taking the low budget and whipping it up with graphics and animation to make it look more, but in most of those cases they missed the mark, here it all comes together into something smart. I'm guessing that Paige was lucky enough to be working with Rodolfo Rolo Ledesma who is an Eisner nominated illustrator(They shared a booth at New York Comic Con this year) who provided some kick ass illustrations.

I really liked the film a great deal... so much so that I want to see what comes next. The film is clearly a set up for something more. There is a bigger story than the 16 minutes can contain and while I was saddened I wasn't at all surprised when the time ran out before the story did.  My one question is where is the rest of it?-*

If you want to see something really special and one of the gems I set up Unseen Films to find and showcase then track down  Chronicles of Contessa -The Mark of Devison.  And let's all hope that Pamela Paige can find someone crazy enough to give her the money to try to do something like this on a feature scale.

(*-Addendum: I got an email from the director who said this was to be three times the length but technical issues with the green screen wrecked all of the additional footage and it had to be rewritten. She needs an investor to finish shooting the film. )

Director /star Pamela Paige at NYCC '13