Film About Father Raising Son With Down Syndrome Debuts At Tribeca
ATLANTA — “Color Book,” a feature film written and directed by David F. Fortune, tells the story of a widower on Atlanta’s eastside raising a son with Down syndrome.
The 115-minute movie, which explores setbacks experienced by father and son as they attempt to attend their first baseball game together, made its world premiere last weekend at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York City, as part of the festival’s “Viewpoints” competition.
“Color Book” stars actor Will Catlett as Lucky, father to 11-year-old Mason, played by actor Jeremiah Daniels, who lives with Down syndrome. The story takes place throughout metro Atlanta, including various MARTA stations and near Truist Park.
“Atlanta is such a beautiful community, and I really wanted to tell a humble, intimate portrait of Atlanta that we often don’t get a chance to see,” Fortune said.
Fortune discovered his passion for filmmaking when he was a student at Morehouse. He started studying the craft of making films, starting with Spike Lee, then studying international filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky and Alfonso CuarĂłn. Through their works, Fortune learned to craft films using a slowed pace, allowing him to tell character-driven stories.
“The power of cinema allows you to see an entire world that’s totally different from yours and find common ground,” Fortune said.
Fortune creates compassion with “Color Book” by using extended flashback sequences, slow crawls and soft, personable camera shots, inspired by portraits captured by Black photographers like Gordon Parks and Carrie Mae Weems.
Fortune told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution “Color Book” was shot intentionally in black and white.
“Black and white is a narrative choice that helps viewers lean into characters rather than the world,” he said. “It enhances the characters’ relationships instead of what’s going on around them.”
He adds critique of the surge of film and television projects around Atlanta, which often neglect to make the city a character in the storytelling, he believes. “There are a lot of productions that take place in Atlanta but no stories being told of Atlanta,” Fortune said.
He hopes his film is different, and audiences will relate to “the space that raised me.”
Fortune came up with the premise for the film in 2018, while finishing film school at Loyola Marymount University. He wanted to tell a story about a Black father raising his son and was encouraged by one of his professors to follow his dream.
“I just wanted to take that lens, apply it to East Atlanta and Decatur, and bring something that’s a bit more nuanced,” he said. “I wanted to see people who had disabilities in the Black community have their stories elevated.”
The aspiring auteur interviewed parents around metro Atlanta whose children were affected by the condition before writing the script.
“I grew up here and saw the humanity, struggles, joys, ups and downs in everybody. This was the place that taught me life lessons, and I can now depict those humble beginnings in my films,” he said.
Fortune was accepted into directing labs by Netflix, Paramount Television, Village Roadshow and Urbanworld Film Festival. His relationship with Tribeca Film Festival began in 2021 during a fellowship with Indeed x Hillman Grad Productions’ Rising Voices Program, founded by Emmy Award-winning writer/producer Lena Waithe.
“Making films is painful. Playing characters is painful. The process is painful. If you’re growing up in Decatur or any inner-city in the USA, it’s painful. But if there’s no pain there’s no joy. If there’s no pain there’s no beauty,” he insisted as he described the process of bringing Mason’s father Lucky to life on-screen.
“There’s beauty hidden inside of your pain; you just have to go through it. This is what Lucky discovers. Most fathers aren’t able to show up because of the pain but if they stick around then they will be able to find the joy and love in raising a son like Mason.”
Fortune accepts the praise and says the goal of “Color Book” was just to have impact.
“If I can leave the theater knowing the audience spent time with these two characters, that’s all I can ask for.”
The article was featured in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 13, 2024, by Christopher A. Daniel
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