Decatur native’s film about Atlanta father raising son with Down syndrome debuts at Tribeca festival

“Atlanta is such a beautiful community and I really wanted to paint a humble and intimate portrait of Atlanta that we often don’t get to see,” Fortune said.

Credit: Foster Lewis

Credit: Foster Lewis

Fortune discovered his passion for film while he was a student at Morehouse. He began studying the craft of filmmaking, starting with Spike Lee, then studying international filmmakers like Andrei Tarkovsky and Alfonso Cuarón. Through their works, Fortune learned to create films at a slow pace, allowing him to tell character-driven stories.

“The power of cinema allows you to see a world totally different from your own and find common ground,” Fortune said.

Fortune creates compassion with “Color Book” using extended flashback sequences, slow explorations and gentle, gentle shots, inspired by the portraits captured by black photographers like Gordon Parks and Carrie Mae Weems.

Fortune told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that “Color Book” was intentionally shot in black and white.

“Black and white is a narrative choice that helps viewers focus on the characters rather than the world,” he said. “It enhances the relationships between the characters rather than what’s happening around them.”

He also criticizes the proliferation of film and television projects around Atlanta, which often neglect to make the city a character in the story, he believes. “There are a lot of productions that take place in Atlanta but no stories are told about Atlanta,” Fortune said.

He hopes his film will be different and that audiences will identify with “the space that raised me.”

Fortune came up with the premise for the film in 2018, while he was finishing his film studies at Loyola Marymount University. He wanted to tell the story of a black father raising his son and was encouraged by one of his teachers to pursue his dream.

“I just wanted to take that focus, apply it to East Atlanta and Decatur, and bring something a little more nuanced,” he said. “I wanted to see people with disabilities in the black community have their stories elevated.”

The aspiring author interviewed parents in the Atlanta metro area whose children were affected by the disease before writing the screenplay.

“I grew up here and saw everyone’s humanity, struggles, joys, ups and downs. This is the place that taught me life lessons, and I can now depict those humble beginnings in my films,” he said.

Fortune has been accepted into the filmmaking labs of Netflix, Paramount Television, Village Roadshow and Urbanworld Film Festival. Her relationship with the 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.

The incubator program funded and supported his short film “Shoebox,” which premiered at Tribeca. Fortune says the director’s labs taught him to be intentional in his creative choices and business decisions.

“They gave me a canvas and a platform to nurture my voice,” Fortune said. “I knew how to budget, plan, and schedule what it took to complete a professional project.”

In 2023, Fortune won a $1 million grant as the sixth winner of the “Untold Stories” festival to produce its first feature film over the course of a year. Even before Fortune applied to Tribeca’s “Untold Stories” program, he was confident that “Color Book” met the submission criteria, but he ran into production problems.

After securing financing to make “Color Book,” strikes by the Writers Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild delayed his schedule. He was able to recruit actors, hire a crew and begin filming in January, but deadlines were tight, as “Color Book” had to be submitted to the Tribeca Film Festival in May.

“I only had five weeks to edit the film, which is almost impossible for a feature film.” Fortune told. Yet he didn’t let a lack of time stop him from meeting his deadline. “If you give me a million dollars, it’s mine to hand over.”

Christopher Escobar, owner of the Plaza and Tara Theater and one of the producers of “Color Book,” helped Fortune with financing and organized events to support the project.

“David is a tremendous filmmaker and it was a privilege to help him bring his vision to life,” Escobar said.

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Credit: Jenni Girtman

Catlett agreed. “Making films is painful. Playing characters is painful. The process is painful. If you grow up in Decatur or any inner city in the United States, it’s painful. But if there is no pain, there is no joy. If there’s no pain, there’s no beauty,” he insisted when describing the process of bringing Mason’s father, Lucky, to life on screen.

“There is beauty hidden inside your pain; just go through it. This is what Lucky discovers. Most fathers can’t show up because of the pain, but if they stick around, they can find joy and love in raising a son like Mason.

Daniels said he was grateful for the opportunity to work on “Color Book” alongside Catlett, whom he described as an incredible actor, while praising Fortune’s leadership on set.

“I feel honored to be able to bring David’s creation to life in a realistic and relatable way,” Daniels said. “This experience changed me forever… ‘Color Book’ is family.”

Fortune accepts the praise and says the goal of “Color Book” was simply to make an impact.

“If I can leave the theater knowing that the audience spent time with these two characters, that’s all I can ask for.”