Filmmaker David Fortune is just not a father himself, however he is aware of the significance of fatherhood. Because of the AT&T Untold Tales Pitch Competitors on the Tribeca Pageant, he just lately went residence with the highest prize of $1 million for his heartfelt movie, Coloration E-book.
Set in his hometown of Atlanta—Decatur to be precise—the movie captures the day-in-the-life of a loyal, single father elevating his son with down syndrome after his spouse’s passing. It chronicles their journey to attend their first baseball sport collectively.
“It’s my story of a Black father and son, capturing the intimacies of these relationships, as a result of I would like extra tales that seize our humanity. I felt that this father’s story of elevating a son with down syndrome displays that intimacy I used to be all the time trying to find,” explains Fortune, additionally a Morehouse alum.
David Fortune was chosen by a panel of judges that included New Jack Metropolis and Dynasty star Michael Michele, actor/director Mo McRae from Sons of Anarchy, Den of Thieves, and A Lot of Nothing fame, and Derek Luke, most just lately of Crossover, amongst others.
Judging the competitors was an actual honor for Michele, “as a result of it celebrates true artists.” For her, the artwork of filmmaking is typically misplaced within the business a part of all of it. So “to be part of serving to make that call about who will get the cash to meet their creative thought and splendid for filmmaking” is an expertise she cherishes.
Fatherhood was the facet of Fortune’s pitch for Coloration E-book that actually grabbed Luke probably the most, he shares. “I’m a father,” he says. “I’m homeschooling my children. Parenting has been rewarding and tough throughout COVID and after COVID. And regardless that I’m in a distinct zip code with extra numerous individuals, I hear the identical cries from white those who I hear from Black.”
“As a director, I used to be searching for specificity and readability and imaginative and prescient,” shares McCrae. “I used to be searching for ardour, and an actual robust sense of artistry. David Fortune, who ended up changing into the winner, exhibited all of the issues I used to be searching for when it comes to who may take this $1 million {dollars}, and go off and never simply make a film, however make a movie that might be memorable and will resonate with individuals.”
Echoing Michele who additionally spoke of movie being artwork not subjected to business pursuits, Luke needs to see unbiased movie, the place he and so many others acquired their begin, proceed to thrive. “The ecosystem of cinema must be balanced, the place it is not simply sci-fi, however it’s the steadiness of true storytelling, or grounded storytelling,” he says.
For him, that is important to the lifeblood of filmmaking, “as a result of many occasions when our cinema has gone by way of a down lull, it was grounded, uncooked tales that introduced it again up.”
And Fortune’s Coloration E-book positively matches that invoice. His movie is one which comes from being observant of others, not simply himself. Again in grade college, he says he seen, “these with disabilities have been typically separated from the remainder of the scholar physique. And for me, it was like extra of a curiosity of how can I spotlight their perspective and their lives and embrace them into our group? As a result of they’re part of it.”
The Morehouse grad says his need to uplift comes from being uplifted. “I’m not a father myself, however I’ve been fathered,” he says. “After dropping my dad, there have been so many Black males who stepped in and sheltered me and guided me in the correct path. They helped me get to Morehouse Faculty and continued to assist me get by way of grad college at Loyola Marymount College. I owe all that to Black males, and so this movie is a love letter to them.”
