Ava DuVernay is an American director, producer, and writer known for her works that tackle African American experiences. Since 2018, DuVernay has transitioned to writing, directing, and producing films.
She first gained attention with the documentary This is Life in 2008, about the birth of the hip-hop movement in Los Angeles in the 1990s. In 2012, she created Middle of Nowhere which shows the daily life of a young lady whose husband is in jail. DuVernay was acknowledged as the first African American woman to win the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival with that film.
“Art is the foundation of any movement.” – Ava DuVernay, award-winning writer, producer, and film director.
In an interview with Danielle Belton, editor-in-chief of The Root, DuVernay talked about the role of Black critique in art and the power of an image. The filmmaker has been creating art that uplifts the culture forward. It’s to transform a complete view of what it means to be Black in the US today.
Ava DuVernay’s Fight for Change
The award-winning film director believes in the role of artists during widespread unrest and how movies and documentaries could make a difference.
She told Belton that most of the films in different countries might depict scenes that happened decades long ago. But movie sets seen in her movies are starting to look a lot like the United States today.
For instance, Selma is her 2014 film about the 1965 rallies for voting rights and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s participation in them. DuVernay directed hundreds of Black and White artists in performing civil rights protests. When They See Us, her mini-series about the wrongful detention of teenage boys known as the Central Park Five, premiered on Netflix in 2019. Likewise, her Netflix documentary “13th” from 2016 depicts the legacy of American slavery and the existing criminalization of Black communities.
DuVernay said that her dream is to see more Black communities’ representation in TV and films. Specifically, she wants other Black directors to tell stories about Black histories and experiences.
In 2019, DuVernay’s media agency ARRAY launched the Law Enforcement Accountability Project in the wake of George Floyd’s killing in Minneapolis. The project aims to support works from Black to focus on police violence.
The link between film and social activism
Ava DuVernay started to connect art and social action in high school. In previous interviews, it started when she attended an Amnesty International Concert. It was the first time she began to link her experiences to the broader dimension through music.
Later on, when she watched films like The Battle of Algiers, and the movies of Haile Gerima, an Ethiopian filmmaker, she began to connect images, film, and social injustice.
According to DuVernay, changing people’s minds does not matter if they are working within a system that’s still problematic. No matter how you create awareness and educate people, change is limited if the systems we all work in are detrimental to a healthy industry. That’s why we need to become open-minded about how we promote reforms and, at the same time, rebuild the system.
DuVernay is determined despite working in an industry that hasn’t seen many black women who direct and create other art forms. She began as a publicist, where she excelled at it. She developed a vision that bloomed into reality through the years. Plus, she has created films and documentaries that combined art and activism across all forms.
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