Tribeca Festival 2024 Exclusive: Naturi Naughton-Lewis On Stepping Behind The Camera & Executive Producing ‘Color Book’
Among the films that made its World Premiere at the 2024 Tribeca Festival was Color Book, written and directed by David Fortune and starring William Catlett, Brandee Evans, Terri J. Vaughn, and Jeremiah Daniels.
Produced by Kiah Clingman, Kristen Uno, and Autumn Bailey-Ford, the executive producing team includes Naturi Naughton-Lewis, Xavier Two Lewis, and Korstiaan Vandiver.
For his screenplay, Fortune was the 2023 One Million Dollar Recipient from AT&T Untold Stories. A long-term collaboration between AT&T and the Tribeca Festival, Untold Stories is an inspiring mentorship program that connects rising, historically underrepresented filmmakers to greater possibilities by empowering them with the necessary resources and support they need to bring their unique stories.
Following his wife's recent passing, single father Lucky finds himself navigating the challenges of raising his son Mason, who has Down syndrome. Mason is an exuberant 11-year-old boy who enjoys drawing in his color book and watching baseball with his dad. Seeking solace, Lucky and Mason embark on a journey across Metro Atlanta to attend their first baseball game together. Throughout their day-long trip, they encounter Murphy's Law.
From car breakdowns to missed trains, the duo faces a series of obstacles that test their relationship. Despite the setbacks, they persevere, determined to reach the game. Together, Lucky and Mason learn that healing does not await them at the mountaintop, but can be found with every step along the path.
For Naturi, who’s had a wondering career as a singer as a member of 3LW and as actress, with notable roles in Notorious, Power, Power Book II: Ghost and Queens, this is a chance for folks to see what she can do behind the scenes as she and her husband have started a production shingle called Take Two Entertainment.
Blackfilmandtv.com recently caught up with Naughton-Lewis as she spoke about getting on board with ‘Color Book.’
So Color Book just premiered at Tribeca. How did you get involved in it?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: Well, my husband (Xavier Two Lewis) and I decided to really get involved when we heard about it through a friend of ours who actually is also one of the EPs, Korstiaan Vandiver. And we saw and we met with the director, David Fortune, and he was just so captivating in the way he wanted to tell the story about, a black father raising his son with special needs.
I was just really moved by the script. And by the use of lack of color, the black and white is interestingly colorful. So for me, as we, Two and I started Take Two Entertainment, and it really just felt like the right opportunity to launch with this as our first project. And it's a really special, special story.
Did they ask you to star it as opposed to coming on board as a producer?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: No, no, actually, thankfully, this is one that I could just sit back and get in my producer bag, executive produce. I was on set. I got to meet Brandee Evans, who's amazing and a great actress in P-Valley, and Will Catlett, who I've known for years. Seeing him in this was just really rewarding for me as his friend and also as a producer. But no, I was not asked to be in this movie.
It's really not a movie that centers around a female cast. As you see, it's more a father-son story, and I was just really excited, and Two and I decided to just jump in and wanted to be a part of it; not because I'm an actress in it, but because I believe in the story.
From what I understand, this is a movie that was given a grant with $1 million the previous year, I guess, as a script?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: Correct. So, it actually won the AT&T Untold Stories, and Tribeca picked a very, very select few to be in this group of chosen filmmakers particularly of color. David Fortune, our director, was selected to get this grant of $4 million dollars to go make the movie based on the script and the short film. They did a beautiful presentation in front of AT&T and Tribeca, and that was one of the amazing things that this story already had, the support of the Tribeca Film Festival.
And for us, when we heard about that, and we were in the process of casting and bringing all the crew together, I was like, well, this is a great opportunity to really already have a home and a support and the backing of Tribeca, which I thought was great.
So, when you said this was your first project under Take Two, were there other projects you were looking at first? How did this come to be the first one as opposed to ones you said no to?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: So, to give just a little backstory. Two and I started Take Two Entertainment in December of 2023, so we are really six months old, and January of this year was the beginning of this, and we actually started working on Color Book before we even had Take Two Entertainment officially put in place.
But, with the first project being self-funded and produced ourselves, which was the short film I directed, 333, it just hasn't come out yet, so that was actually the first project we produced and shot and made and I directed, but that's going to be submitted for 2025 film festivals, and hopefully, you'll see that very soon. But this is the first, and then we did Color Book. There was some other projects, ironically, I've been getting approached just for years about jumping on as an executive producer or producer on other things, and I have individually executive produced Call Her King, which was the BET Plus movie that I starred in.
I executive produced a Lifetime movie that Kirk Franklin did, Kirk Franklin's Night for Christmas, starring myself and Luke James, so I've been an EP, but never have I really jumped in from the origins of a project with my own production company, so what my husband and I are starting is really a legacy for our family, and Take Two, which is a pun on his name, but also, as an actress, you get a second take, hopefully Take Two, and that's how we came up with the name,
This was definitely one of the first that actually is out for people to see, and it felt like the other projects just didn't have the same weight and also the same genuineness that this project had. When David told me it wasn't about a crazy story of drama or drugs or, it just was about a father in mourning and grieving and trying to take his son to a baseball game, I was like, we don't often get to see black life in such a natural, organic way where we don't have to force out anything gratuitous or over the top. We can just be human in the moment, and that's what I loved about it.
With this being your first project, and as an EP, were you on the set?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: Yes. I actually, we shot this in Atlanta, Georgia. We live in New York, but we flew to Atlanta to be there on set. I actually got a chance to really watch David as a director and just give input where I could, wherever I was needed and available, and we were on Zoom calls, but I was on set. My husband, unfortunately, wasn't able to come to the set because he was actually just recovering from getting out of the hospital at that time, because I don't know if you heard, he was sick at the top of the year, so while we were shooting, it was really just me and the rest of the team on set, and I was so moved when I got to meet Jeremiah Daniels. He has Down Syndrome, but he's just a ball of light and energy, and he's really, really beautiful in this role, and also Will Catlett, and so getting to see their chemistry on set was really important to me, which is why I don't want to be an executive producer that just sits in the background and waves for a second, and then disappears, and just smacks her name on it.
I really want this to be the beginning of a journey where people see me outside of Naturi Naughton the actress, Naturi the singer from 3LW, or Naturi the Tasha that many of you love from Power. I wanted people to know my passion for producing and directing is very, very serious to me, and I can't wait for the world to see that.
What is the next step for the film? Is it going to make the festival run before it goes into theaters or streaming? Does it have a distributor at this point, or is it too early in the stages?
Naturi Naughton-Lewis: We had three great sold-out screenings of Color Book and received great feedback. We've had actually some interest, so we're talking to people now. This is David's baby, the director, David Fortune, and once he feels it's the right move for what he thinks this could lead, because it definitely could do a limited run in theaters, and then we should go to streamer, or we could go straight to streamer. There's so many options. However, I think what we want to do is keep our options open, and we're going to continue.
We have a couple more festivals to hit, and then just continue to get the buyers and people talking about it. And that's the thing, and with journalism and interviews, and as an EP, my goal is just to get people to pay attention, to see the value in a story like this, and to show buyers that audiences do need just natural life stories, where a day in the life of a black father and his son with special needs is a story that we don't see. So I think we're just going to continue to hit some other festivals, so I'm excited to see where things go.