Abby Embree - Fast Color

The film Fast Color is a science fiction film about a woman named Ruth (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) who, after eight long years, returns to her childhood home to reunite with her mother Bo and the daughter Ruth had left behind to try and control her earthquake inducing seizures. However, Ruth is being chased by an unknown government agency, determined to capture her and test her powers to try and solve the eight year long drought that has loomed over their country. As the agency comes closer and closer to finding Ruth and her family, she is learning how to be a real mother to the daughter who never knew her and how to control her powers so she can finally see the Colors. 

Ruth watching Lila try to put the pane of glass back together

Ruth and Bo bonding over their family's magical history

Film's Significance

This film, above all else, is a film about motherhood and the healing that needs to come before one can be. a mother to someone else. It portrays the way that trauma can shape and change a person alongside their relationship with their children and that healing from the trauma is the first step towards becoming a better parent to their children. It's not meant to villify parents who have trauma and call them bad parents but to encourage them to try and heal from that trauma so they can be even better parents to their children. The film itself is also revolutionary in its genre as a superhero film as the main character is a black mother and focuses on her relationship with her daughter and mother. In an era where all superheroes in films were action heroes intending on saving the world, this film showcases a superhero is intent on saving her family and herself, accidentally saving the world in the process. 

Discussion Questions

1. When the film is viewed, it comes to light that the magical powers are pushed to the background while the family drama of the film is pushed to the forefront. Why do you think the director decided to put the magical powers in the background of the film even though the film is marketed with the powers in the forefront?
2. Throughout the film, Ruth is being chased after an unnamed government agency for her abilities, specifically a white cis man is chasing her for the advancement of science. What connections can be made between this relationship between Ruth and this man can we see in modern society, especially within the scientific field?