‘Fast Color’ Deserves Your Attention After Being The Victim Of A Botched Theatrical Release

Fast Color, co-written and directed by Julia Hart, was introduced to audiences at the 2018 South by Southwest Film Festival. The film stars Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Lorraine Toussaint and Saniyya Sidney as three generations of Black women with supernatural abilities. Last month, it was announced that Viola Davis’ JuVee Productions – in partnership with Hart and her co-writer Jordan Horowitz – would make a series based on the film for Amazon Studios. This is an amazing turn of events for the property considering the rocky rollout from festival acquisition to release. To fully celebrate this expansion of the Fast Color universe, let’s look back on how we got here.

When it premiered at SXSW back in 2018, the film received positive praise, the general consensus applauding the unique take on the superhero/supernatural genre while choosing Black women to drive the story. Ruth (Raw) is an unstable power-user on the run while her mother Bo (Toussaint) trains her daughter Lila (Sidney) in the ways of their abilities. Ruth eventually returns to her home after a confrontation with a scientist who wants to study her powers. With her return came painful conversations, the mending of broken relationships and the ownership of one’s destiny.

The entire film orbits around the gut-wrenching performances of Raw and Toussaint. Raw, in particular, is in prime form, committing to a searing performance that puts Ruth’s pain front and center. This sentiment is beautifully displayed in a standout scene featuring the three characters each from a different generation. Sitting amongst the table, there’s a communication barrier between Ruth and Lila because Ruth left after she was born. Ruth and Lila converse as if they’re strangers – which, by definition, they are. Ruth’s quiet and stilted answers to her estranged daughter are palpable. And that’s all due to Raw’s choice in shiftiness, leaning into the discomfort that catches the audience’s eye.

SXSW came and went, and there was no word of Fast Color getting acquired until September that year – when Codeblack purchased the film for a planned March 2019 release; this date ultimately got pushed back to April 2019. A trailer was released in January 2019, garnering anticipation on social media. Unfortunately, the social conservation did not match up to the distribution it received. The film had a very limited release, only showing in twenty-five theaters in the United States. Marketing was seemingly non-existent, with Hart and Horowitz leveraging their social platforms to promote the film. The lack of marketing could be attributed to Lionsgate ending the Codeblack partnership earlier this year, losing access that came with major studio collaboration. 

There is a sticky pattern when it comes to Black female-led stories getting acquired later —or not at all— during the festival circuit in recent years. At the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency starring Alfre Woodard won the US Dramatic Competition Grand Jury prize – but it didn’t get acquired by NEON until a month after the festival. Another 2019 Sundance film, Tayarisha Poe’s Selah and the Spades got acquired six months after its premiere. Distribution of a film like Fast Color feels like one of many challenges that films starring Black women face during the festival circuit.

Like Fast Color, Selah and the Spades is being turned into a series by Amazon Studios. This is an interesting choice considering these are both fully fleshed out films. Whether deliberate or not, this puts another glance to Amazon Studios’ development slate and film strategy. After Late Night stumbled at the box office this spring, Selah and Fast Color‘s pivot to television could be a signal that Amazon Studios is channeling their energy (and money) into this medium instead.

It’s no secret that Fast Color took the long way, so to speak, to get here. No matter the challenges, audiences will now have the opportunity to follow these powerful Black women as they navigate their abilities and a society that doesn’t understand them. There’s more story to tell in this universe – and it’s exciting to see how it unfolds.

Joi Childs is a brand marketer, freelance writer, and sarcasm enthusiast. Born and Raised in NYC, she loves writing and talking about the intersection of marketing and nerd life. Her work has appeared at The Hollywood Reporter, The Verge, Okayplayer, and many other outlets. Follow her on Twitter to keep up with her great adventures in cinema and more: @jumpedforjoi

Where to stream Fast Color