Opinion
DuVernay: White male directors often lack know-how but succeed via confidence
“I see white guys all the time don't know what they're, the hell they're doing, but you know what they do have? Confidence. They're gonna get out there and say, I want to figure it out, and I'm sure I'll be okay. I'm sure I can figure this out.”
Insight
DuVernay: Great filmmaking relies on story and performance over technical mastery
“That the core of what made a great filmmaker was, did you know the story? Not did you know the lens, did you know, the technical aspects, but there are a lot of filmmakers out there who are story and performance focused and less technically focused.”
Assertion Supported
DuVernay: Rodney King video was first national police assault without punishment
“Really the first video footage of a police Assault that reached national prominence was still not enough to result in any kind of, you know, punishment for the officers who were involved.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DuVernay: As of 2012, no Black female filmmaker made a sustainable living
“There was no precedent for Sustainable livelihood as a black woman filmmaker as recently as 2012.”
Assertion Supported
DuVernay: AFFRM used Black film festivals to distribute indie movies
“And so I started to put together a coalition of black film festivals that Not only supported my work outside of their festival, because they had lists of film lovers, black film lovers, they had relationships with theaters where they showed their festivals, th…”
Insight
DuVernay: A film director operates like the mayor of a small town
“Yeah, I think of the CA, I think of the director as the mayor of a small town, because a film has every element of a small town. I mean, a fire department, a hospital, that's the medic, you know what I mean? There's some people working construction, there's so…”
Assertion Partly supported
DuVernay: A Sundance peer landed a Jurassic Park sequel within six months
“One of my fellow filmmakers at Sundance who won the Screenwriting Award that year, who within six months had a deal to direct the sequel to Jurassic Park.”
Assertion Supported
Spielberg owned film rights to MLK's speeches during Selma's development
“Steven Spielberg had the rights to the speeches in film at that time.”
Insight
DuVernay: Filmmakers get more creative leeway when spending less money
“You get more leeway when you are spending less money. So, I'd rather have leeway and less money.”
Opinion
DuVernay: The word 'entrepreneur' is unfairly reserved for fancy companies
“I think that we don't use that word for people who are not, you know. Creating companies that are fancy, so to speak”
Opinion
DuVernay: Adults should stop asking children what they want to be
“When people would ask that horrible question that you ask children, which I don't think children should be asked, what do you want to be when you grow up?”
Insight
DuVernay: You can market anything if you understand storytelling
“I never think that way, because I know you can sell and market anything if you know how to do it, which I do.”
Opinion
DuVernay: Palm Springs festival acceptance felt more euphoric than Oscar nomination
“And literally, I Did not feel that same joy even when I got the Academy Award nomination. Like, nothing has since felt as euphoric and like breaking me wide open as the Palm Springs short film festival acceptance.”
Disclosure
DuVernay: Middle of Nowhere was produced on a $250,000 budget
“Yeah, the second one, I used profits from the first one, plus my landlord in my office building said, oh, I have some friends who Might invest. And so he collected 20,010 1050 thousand from some, you know, people he knew that were, you know, doing pretty well.…”
Assertion Supported
DuVernay: No Black female director had ever received an Oscar nomination
“On top of that, no black woman director had ever been nominated in the history of the Academy, which at that point is many decades, so that's against me.”
Assertion Supported
DuVernay: Paid internship at CBS Evening News coincided with O.J. trial
“I got an internship with CBS Evening News with Dan Rather and Connie Chung. And this was right at the time of the OJ Simpson trial, and I was an intern with a very prestigious paid internship that I was very excited about.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
DuVernay: Staking out an O.J. Simpson juror made me quit journalism
“And I basically just sat outside her house, you know, and saw what was coming and going and like made notes and I remember hating it and feeling like this is stupid and wrong and I don't want to be doing this. And it really soured my appetite for news. So that…”
Assertion Supported
DuVernay: Michael Mann pioneered Viper digital cameras for night shoots
“He was one of the first to use these digital cameras called Vipers, which could shoot through the night.”
Disclosure
DuVernay: Debut short film 'Saturday Night Life' cost roughly $5,000
“And I think I made the whole thing on like, I don't know, five grand or something, but I made it.”
Insight
DuVernay: Filmmakers watch the audience, not the screen, during screenings
“I mean, any filmmaker that's in a screening of their films not watching the film, they're watching the audience.”
Ava DuVernay