“Color Book” director David Fortune probably imagined after graduating from film school eight years ago that he was — very quickly — getting his first break into the industry.
He was accepted into a directing fellowship for the Village Roadshow Emerging Talent Program, which in 2019 partnered with his alma mater Loyola Marymount University and awarded him a $10,000 grant. Additional chunks of change from the ViacomCBS ViewFinders Directors Program and Hillman Grad/Indeed’s Rising Voices Program led to his early short films. But it takes a lot of money to make an indie movie and a lot of knocking on doors to truly get an opportunity in Hollywood. In fact, two of those companies don’t even exist anymore.
Then came the Ghetto Film School via the Netflix Content Creator’s Program in 2022. Another $25,000 over six months produced “Us,” a black-and-white short film about a father teaching his son with Down Syndrome to play baseball. Less than a year later after that, another Netflix-backed program, Film Independent’s Amplifier Fellowship as supported by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, gave him $30,000 to develop his first feature, “Color Book.” Even then, “Color Book” didn’t get made until AT&T awarded him a $1 million prize in 2024 to shoot the film and secure it a slot to premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Two more years removed from that premiere, “Color Book” is finally launching today, June 19, on Netflix and in limited theatrical release. Fortune’s journey to this point is a bit like the odyssey that the main character in his feature endures over the course of a day in Atlanta. Ask him why he was willing to keep returning to the well for program after program, each one promising opportunity in Hollywood for diverse, underrepresented filmmakers but without necessarily the promise of distribution? It’s because they were the only doors open to him.
“What those programs did was provide me access to funding to make my films. I wasn’t getting funding from Hollywood. I knew that fundraising for each project was just going to be painstaking, and having to go back to people for funding, that could be a lot of burden on a lot of people’s financials,” Fortune told IndieWire. “But the reason why I kept going back to the well was, that’s where the support was. Those were organizations who saw something in me and saw my genius, my brilliance, my vision as an artist, and wanted to support that. And I always say, as an artist, go where you’re loved, go where you’re supported, go where the gate is open, instead of trying to go through gatekeepers that are not trying to allow you to be put in.”
Much like “Us,” “Color Book” follows a newly-single father named Lucky (William Catlett) mourning the passing of his wife while also trying to care for his son Mason (Mason Hutchinson) with Down Syndrome. Lucky decides to take Mason to his first baseball game in Atlanta, only to encounter a series of complications and setbacks for which fatherhood, grief, and economic barriers are a distinct part of the Black American experience.
The intimate, all black-and-white film is ruminative, delicately paced, and lush to look at in every shot, and the film’s themes make it an ideal Juneteenth and Father’s Day watch. Though Fortune himself is not a dad, he grew up as a camp counselor who worked closely with many kids with Down Syndrome and found that their experience and representations of a devoted Black father are ones we haven’t seen enough of on screen. So while it might be a coincidence that his name is “Fortune” and his main character’s name is “Lucky,” “Color Book” is undoubtedly a personal story.
“These experiences I see every day. However, I’m not seeing it in the cinema,” Fortune said. “If it’s something that we live, if it’s something that we experience, if it’s something that we see, then we should be able to experience it on the big screen, we should be able to experience it on different platforms that showcase different content, because these are a reflection of our human experiences overall.”
He jokes too that naming a black-and-white film “Color Book” may make him one of the worst at coming up with movie titles. But the title refers to a sketch pad Mason uses throughout the film, one in which he draws pictures of their day that reflect their inner spirit and journey. And by shooting it in black and white, he was able to exemplify the close bond this father and son share.
“I wanted to capture the intimacies between these two individuals, and black and white helps accentuate that because it takes out any distraction within the frame and only allows you to quiet your focus within the two characters that we’re seeing,” Fortune said. “So when you’re watching the movie, you’re not focused on the blue sky or the passing red car or the blue house, you’re only concentrated on the relationship between Lucky and Mason.”
But it wasn’t just the money from these incubator programs that got Fortune to this point. Each of the Netflix-backed programs helped genuinely develop “Color Book” into the movie it became. By the time he joined the Netflix Amplifier Fellowship, the film was only in its second draft and had a long way to go.
“‘Color Book’ was done, it was completed, but it needed maturity, it needed nurturing, it needed development, and through that program I was able to get a lot of feedback and notes from my other fellows who were in the same position as me, providing their work and looking for feedback and responses,” Fortune said. “Going through that incubator where your film is constantly tested, it’s tried and it’s true, that’s what my film needed at that point in time. But also the fellowship gave me a space to just find clarity and work on it.”
Fortune shouted out the fellowship’s head Angela Lee for her guidance, who told him the responsibility a filmmaker has when aiming to tell a universal story.
“This story represents so many people’s lives. Take care of this, be precious about it,” he recalled Lee telling him. “Because oftentimes, as artists, we’re always trying to do so many quick revisions. We’re trying to send it out to so many different people, to get funding for it. But she told me, be precious about this story and to nurture this as if it’s your own child. I’ve always stuck with that quote.”
Netflix has backed over 1,000 training programs in the past five years around the world, wrangling over 90,000 people to participate. Many of these people have found jobs on Netflix shows or in the industry at large, but you could argue that these programs from Netflix and across the industry still have to do more and produce more actual success stories like Fortune’s with tangible results and films being released. Fortune, who is currently writing his second feature, hopes having a home at Netflix for so long might lead to working with them again. But more importantly, he hopes his journey provides a template for others.
“When those organizations or those companies provide financial assistance or provide opportunities for artistic growth, I think it only helps elevate the artists,” he said. “Regarding the industry, that’s the other side is to take notice of these filmmakers. I always say that if you see something that resonates with you about their work, why not bring them in as a part of your camp? Why not bring them into your production company? Why not continue to support their voice if you feel like there’s something powerful within that? I do think it’s up to the industry to take notice of these filmmakers and see more about them, see how could they help elevate their career even further, just like Netflix is doing with myself. So I think there’s a model for many people to follow and look at.”
“Color Book” is available on Netflix now.
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