I’m a prison abolitionist because the prison system as it is set up is just not working. It’s horrible. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
In documentaries, there’s a truth that unfolds unnaturally, and you get to chronicle it. In narratives, you have to create the situations so that the truth will come out. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
In Hollywood, there is one dominant voice. It is a white, male, straight gaze. When I talk about positive portrayals of black people and women, I’m saying complexity. I’m not saying goody-two-shoes, everything’s okay. No. The positive view of me is to see me as I am: the ‘good,’ the ‘bad,’ the gray. That is a positive portrayal. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
There’s something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It’s a reflection as opposed to an interpretation. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
All the traditional models for doing things are collapsing; from music to publishing to film, and it’s a wide open door for people who are creative to do what they need to do without having institutions block their art. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
I didn’t start out thinking that I could ever make films. I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to filmmakers and close to film sets. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
I think that if we really want to break it down, that non-black filmmakers have had many, many years and many, many opportunities to tell many, many stories about themselves, and black filmmakers have not had as many years, as many opportunities, as many films to explore the nuances of our reality. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
I make films about black women and it doesn’t mean that you can’t see them as a black man, doesn’t mean that he can’t see them as a white man or she can’t see them as a white woman. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
I think good publicists are just like good mommies – always looking out, making sure folks are comfortable and making sure that folks are on time and making sure that folks are getting what they need and know what they need to do. Ava DuVernay Read Quote
