Eye catching black and white movie centers on loss, father-son relationship, disability
By Deborah Jeanne Sergeant
Beyond its accolades, the award-winning film “Color Book” is worth a watch because of its portrayal of Down syndrome.
Its main character, 11-year-old Mason, has Down syndrome and is played by actor Jeremiah Daniels, who has Down syndrome.
The movie centers on Mason’s relationship with his father, Lucky (Will Catlett) and how the loss of Mason’s mother affects their father-son relationship.
“Historically, especially in popular films, people with a variety of disabilities have not been portrayed by people with disabilities,” said Eileen Radigan, Nazareth University program director and assistant professor for Undergraduate Inclusive Early Childhood/Childhood Education. “One of the big refrains from the disability rights movement is, ‘Nothing about us without us.’ They should be central in establishing disabled narratives in TV, movies and books.”
The cinematography of the black-and-white film is eye catching and perhaps serves as a nod to the black and white, concrete thinking typical of some people with Down syndrome. It’s also masterfully shot and helps grab the attention through a somewhat slow-paced movie.
“Color Book” was funded in part by a $1 million grant from AT&T Untold Stories Award in 2023 and premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024.
The film won awards at the Austin Film Festival, the Deauville American Film Festival, the Chicago International Film Festival and the Denver Film Festival.
“One thing I appreciate is the young actor Jeremiah Daniels is a self-advocate and auditioned for the film with his family wanting to increase representation of people with Down syndrome in films,” Radigan said. “I liked how the film focuses on the relationship between the father and son and the shared grief they have as the mother has passed away. It’s about them navigating their relationship following a tragic event. Both are portrayed as complex characters.”
Mason’s Down syndrome affects daily life in a believable way — he is learning material most 11-year-olds have mastered, such as spelling his name — but his disability is not the center of the plot. Mason isn’t a gifted savant or a tragic blight on his family. He’s a kid who enjoys jokes, misses his late mother and longs to see a live baseball game.
Filmmaker David Fortune found the happy medium in which most families live and the ups and downs of raising a child who has a disability.
“For people with Down syndrome, unfortunately, a lot of roles are stereotypes and are simplistic side characters,” Radigan said. “Or that they’re always happy or flat in emotion. In the film, you can see the complexity of emotions around the loss of his mother.”
Radigan also appreciates how Mason is not infantilized but treated by others in an age-appropriate way. Occasionally, Lucky loses his temper as Mason makes mistakes, sometimes in the context of his disability and sometimes just because he’s an 11-year-old kid.
Throughout the movie, Mason chronicles his life in a coloring book he creates. The book offers Lucky a glimpse of his son’s outlook that can be both touching and amusing. It’s clear Mason, like his father, is processing his grief and trying to become used to the “new normal” of his life without his mother.
Throughout most of the movie, Lucky is trying to take Mason across Atlanta to watch a live baseball game. However, the setbacks they experience, such as the car breaking down, are not only because of Mason’s disability. Lucky is also learning how to navigate life without his wife, who in flashbacks appears as a patient, stable presence in Mason’s life.
“The depth of the relationship between the father and the son and the impact that the mother had for both of them is what I took away and I think others will too,” Radigan said. “How difficult it is to navigate relationships after a loss. I love that it’s not focused on his Down syndrome. It’s part of the film. It’s not tokenism as in it’s ‘so challenging to have Down syndrome.’ It’s a very moving film.”
“Color Book” is streaming on Netflix.