Ava DuVernay | SXSW Live 2015 | SXSW ON

okay I thank you thank you that's really kind thank you so much Oh family I got family in Austin what do you it's like close to Austin where you guys knew Brussels Braunfels don't know it's far from where we started in Compton I don't know where you are now but happy to see y'all so listen I'm just got to be really honest here this isn't exactly the speech I had planned I wrote it this morning started a couple of hours ago I didn't even read it back to myself because there was no time I wrote it like a journal entry cuz it was the best I can do I'm shooting right now I'm in the middle of prepping a show and so when you're directing it's it's everything for me anyway it's like a laser focus so I'm gonna read it to you like a journal entry if that's cool it's the best I got because the truth is I planned to start writing the speech earlier in the week but I've been having a bad week stuff happened personal stuff the kind of stuff where you just want to go home and take a hot shower and crawl in bed kind of stuff and it was that kind of week all week and I didn't make time to write the speech I didn't make time to do the things that I usually do to realign to strike a balance I didn't make time to feed this new habit that I picked up over the last year while making and sharing so my it's a really good habit and one of the many gorgeous things that I learned on this dazzling journey but I didn't do it all week and so the whole freaking week just devolved I mean it was just a nightmare of a friggin week I got to the hotel here at one o'clock in the morning last night with no speech in my hand to make a keynote speech right now and just felt like crap and needless to say I felt like I was in trouble last night so at around 2:00 a.m. I start to force myself to write I actually put pen to paper and and the very thing that I failed to do all week started to happen in that moment I remembered that I'd skipped doing it for the last few days so I just shook my head like are you idiot and I did it I made a list of five things that I was grateful for in that moment and that's something that I've been for the last year a certain woman with the initials o W got me started doing it and and you know it really has been transformative for me so my five things last night were a smooth dark quiet flight when they turn off the lights and there's no babies crying and that one annoying guy who always wants to like be the one who reads on the dark plane decides not to read and to sleep with the rest of us that happened and it was a gift and in that moment I was grateful a South by volunteer greeted me with a smile off the escalators and another one drove me to the hotel at midnight safe and sound and that was a gift and I was grateful being on the same flight with my production designer from the show that I'm working on Inbal Weinberg who told me great stories in the Newark hotel about that one time she was a member of the Israeli army true story and her hilarious philosophy about set crushes and that was a gift for which I'm grateful she's here somewhere why are you involved don't mess with her she's a former member of the Israeli army it's true it's really true a very clean lovely hotel room with excellent water pressure in the shower and a soft clean bed you know sometimes you go to hook I travel a lot so sometimes you go to a hotel and you're like is that a stain on the shape okay never mind just keep it move in but this was clean it was white and clean and had a lovely view of us and I was so grateful to the festival and it was a gift in that moment and I was grateful and I went to bed and for the first time in three nights I wasn't crying into my pillow because like I said I've had a tough week some personal stuffs been going on and I went to bed with a smile because I had done that and I was comfortable in the bed and I woke up knowing exactly what I wanted to share with you today because it's something that I needed to share with myself again and remind myself of so what I want to talk about is about the intention of our attention the intention of our attention it's so big for everyone but especially for artists and creative types like us it's the cause that produces the effect and the effect is our life so whether you're conscious of it or not your intention is the cause that produces the effect which is your life so if you are not paying attention to your intention then your life just kind of is a bit of a hot mess that's what I found each decision we make in action we take is born out of intention so every thought person experience that we give our attention to is motivated by intention so I'm gonna explain us I want to tell a story of the opening days of my three first narrative films the films I've made so far because what I was doing on each of those opening days really reminds me of where I was in my intention about the project and as I reflect on it I see patterns and parallels that speak directly to this idea that I'm sharing with you so my first film was a film called I will follow first narrative film I made it with $50,000 savings and the goodwill and talent of friends and my intention was to begin my career and make something that I could put into theaters myself through these new distribution collective that I'd found it called affirm anyone know about a firm in here that's right small but mighty tribe and so my intention was to get that kick-started so I made the film knowing that I was going to distribute it through a firm my my my distribution collected the collective that I found it with friends and comrades and that this would launch a firm and other filmmakers would want to release their films with us and we would build autonomy and independence and community and so on the opening day of I will follow I was at a theater in LA working like a distributor tracking the details of the four other cities around the country where the film had opened where we'd open the film I remember doing a CNN interview about distributing films with elbow grease and no money there was a glowing tweet from Roger Ebert which linked to his overwhelmingly positive review then the film went on and it did well and it built autonomy and independence and community and it set up a firm in ways that I intended and it was all about distributing films in that moment for me improving our model and our worth as black filmmakers and proving myself and I gave my intention every ounce and molecule of my attention working up to that day and it was a beautiful day and I felt like I achieved my intention but later I would see my error second films middle of nowhere I'm for $200,000 anybody see it few people small but mighty tribe three people and so I made it with $200,000 in the goodwill and talent of friends and all I was thinking about on that film Sundance that's all I wanted I'd been rejected from every lab I applied to there five times rejected from the labs three of my films have been rejected my first short my first doc and my first narrative I will follow and when I look back although I hate to admit it getting into Sundance came into my mind as I started making that film making a deadline really was what I was really really focused on structuring the post so that we'd be done in time for the deadline rushing to make the deadline thinking about the deadline every what day pushing to get it in on time with my fingers tightly crossed and we did it and for once and finally we made it in and on the film's first opening day I was at Sundance in dramatic competition and we won an award and the film was launched into the world and the way that I intended by giving all my attention every bit of my DNA to that intention and I felt like I achieved something but later I would see my error my error wasn't what was achieved because on both films I made great strides as a filmmaker and a film distributor the error was my intention in the first place and where I put my attention because I wasn't making great strides as a human being and an artist when I will follow I was proving my worth through distribution in box office and that's what I wanted my worth was outside of myself with distribution in box office a middle of nowhere I was proving my worth through festivals and accolades my worth was outside of myself and while I achieved them I never felt lighter I never felt better clearer and I never felt happier through all of that I mean it was cool I was having a good time but there was a difference from what I felt later I was just going from thing to thing accomplishment to accomplishment achievement to achievement and my heart wasn't enlarging and my balance was broken and I really didn't even know it because you're just so in the thing and you're not really in the thing you're outside of the thing you everything is happening out right of you so I came to realize that those dreams I'd been dreaming what what was the problem what was so off what was the error it's cuz the dreams are too small if your dream only includes you it's too small if that dream is just about the thing you want to accomplish and you don't even know why you want it I mean it's it's it's too small it may take your attention but you're not really winning you may achieve it but you're not growing from it you're just going from thing to thing it may look like success from the outside but if you don't even truly know how you're doing it then your cause and effect will be off and you're not gonna be fully truly living your dreams so I feel a little weird to tell you that when you win awards and the light is on you that it's not gonna be enough but that's what I'm telling you and I wish someone would have told me that early if we limit our visions to those things outside of us to validate us we're making an intentional error that might very well bring the outside thing you want but it'll ring hollow in the end why because none of that really matters I was interviewing a great filmmaker a great guy Justin Simien did a film called dear white people who anybody see it for a podcast that I do with black filmmakers it's trying to amplify the work of just people of color as they make films so I did this podcast where I interview my colleagues my count my comrades and he said a hell of an honest and true thing and he actually said it to me before I had even articulated it he said it's a hell of a thing to get everything you wanted and he said it with like a little bit of melancholy and sadness and I recognized it because I knew it right in that moment and so I feel kind of like it's like when Madonna's like oh my gosh it's so hard to just have all the lights on you like that's not this I'm trying to communicate something you know what I mean I'm trying to communicate something to say when that light is on you what do you do to really just feel it you know what I mean just feel it and take it in and just be nourished by it and so in the first two films I didn't feel it I was just running through it and now if Selma so we made thanks so this is when I started to set aside that ego for something larger and a realm of beauty opened up in ways I can only struggle here to share with you much fun not to get emotional but my third film Selma we made for 20 million dollars some crazy person decided that it was a good idea to give me that um the goodwill and talent of friends and for Winfrey I went through the whole thing with a sense of almost bewilderment and and just wonder I couldn't believe any of it I just couldn't believe it because none of it was my intention something happened as I started Selma that excluded any thought of box office or awards or any of that this is my father my father is from that place my father is from Land's County Alabama and though I'm in love with a really great guy my dad is the one I love the most he's the man I love the most I looked in him I looked at him I looked at John Lewis I looked into the face of Amelia Boynton I looked into the face of the be survivors of murder attempts on that bridge in 1965 on a bridge that still to this day named after the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan in the area and I had no thought about any of that other crap that usually had motivated me to make films to be honest I went into that film with one thought singular and clear serve this story serve the story you have to it wasn't made with any sort of achievement in mind it was an experience and an offering the experience that we all had in making it was the most nourishing thing I've ever experienced it it's something I'll treasure forever the offering was for others to see and take from it what they will or not the fact that it was made hand-in-hand with artists about these badass activists was the achievement and I didn't come to it because I was so enlightened at that point I wasn't and not been lightened it was simply all I could muster in the face of a momentous task of being charged with telling the story serve the story that's all I thought about that was my intention and that's what I gave my attention to it sounds like it's minimal but it was so so huge didn't feel huge it just felt like the only thing one could do and still survive and stay sane with the idea of jumping from 200 thousand dollars to 20 million dollars telling a story and your father's hometown you're an African American Studies major you're telling the first film ever made him loosen release in theaters about King like you know what it's a lot going on let me just serve the story I'm just I'm just gonna serve the story right and so it didn't come out of like I wasn't like baby Oprah I was just like I just gotta serve the story and focus on that so an opening day Christmas Day was her first opening at two openings limited opening I wasn't tracking the brisk box-office I wasn't reading our 100% fresh reviews on Rotten Tomatoes it wasn't I wasn't I wasn't thinking about our Golden Globe nominations none of that all the things I would have been obsessed about before I'm telling you I used to be a publicist I like pour over the internet like I would have been obsessed about it before I didn't do any of that on opening day in contrast to what I had done on the other opening days I went completely full-on nerd I went with David Hale alone my great friend my brother who played dr. King beautifully did me he and I he and I he's such a nerd first of all I'm single I can jump in the car and do what I want he's a he's a father of four with the wife so he's more I mean it was more nerd I was like this is bad he was just like let's do it we jumped in the car and we it was play opening in like five theaters in the in Los Angeles and we drove to everyone and we watched people watch our movie we we were trying if we were still in the mode of serving the story so it was like okay we made it like it was like serving a dinner okay watching them eat you know and we drove around from theater theater we watched people watch the story and that brought me more joy than I think I'd experienced on all everything that happened with with the other films just that standing in the back of the theater watching people and just stripped of all of the other that I thought mattered it's just about watching what you made and then watching the story that you told about people whose story deserves to be told so the fear of messing up that vital story elevated me in a way there was unconscious setting aside of my ego like I said it wasn't anything I did on purpose now I look back and I see how was a good thing but I'd gone into it with an intention of only one thing service not fear not striving not grasping not proving not box-office not hustling not accolades not reviews not awards I was so freaked out about messing it up that early on I found my calm and just everyday said serve the story and gave every molecule of myself and all that attention to that the main thing is I started working inward not outward and when I tell you that the world opened up there are dreams out there bigger than you even know how to dream so don't limit the dream with the small stuff we have to open up and make your attention be beyond yourself because if your dream is only about you it's too small so by not limiting myself with a narrow external intention I experiencing I experience more listen to me I've had the most awesome year okay listen to me what I'm telling you I can't even I can't even describe but I'm going to try this time last year we were not even shooting that film this day last year we we we didn't even have a green light it was it was it was like we may shoot maybe we go in August maybe what is it gonna happen I remember the day I got the call to direct this stalled movie I wasn't the first the second or the third choice to direct the film I wasn't the fourth or fifth or sixth choice I was the seventh it's a flattering this year the seventh director asked to direct the film at the point they're like look lady do you want to give it a try hey I remember the day I got that call on this stalled movie going away too right and wondering if I'd be able to do King justice the day they told me oh yes by the way you can't use the real speeches it's like not what do you what do you may not use the real speeches he's actually King he's all about speeches like yeah we can't afford those so I don't know what you're gonna do lady but let's see what happens so I'm like sitting like trying to reconstruct speeches and then so rewriting that script and having to give up my writing credit as the only way to get the film made Oprah coming on board the day we were greenlit by Paramount the day I scouted the bridge for the first time with my crew and my dad by my side the day I moved my whole life to Atlanta to start prep the day I first heard David do his King voice oh the days I chose each and every actor I remember and called them and told them the day we all gathered for the first table read the day I first called action on soma the many hot days shooting in Georgia and Alabama and all those glorious extras they were supposed to be playing winter 1965 which means wool coats and hats and gloves and stockings and it was hot it was the summer in the south and they did it and they were beautiful and they were some the late night shot listing with Brad Bradford young props if anybody knows wherever you're shooting the speeches and the marches and feeling so in pocket like just like walk on the set like I got this like I with you it's like the matrix it's like I'm done thank you drop the mic like that's how I felt every day I felt on fire with the shooting wrapping the shoot on July 4th weekend like feeling like going back on the plane from Atlanta LA like I'm like it's Independence Day it's like in my mind like I'm talking about it's like it's okay shut up keep moving my editing room at Paramount you know usually edit like in in my editor Spencer's house or like wherever and so we're like going through the Paramount gates like and all the hours there with him and how much I love him Spencer average working a mood music with Jason Moran is like one of the foremost jazz artists and young amazing guy and Morgan Rose my music supervisor and just any kind of music we want trying to figure out what was the musical landscape of it's so fun the a the first time we premiered the film no test screenings agents my agent Ben good friend those test screenings first of all it's like test screenings what's that and it was just like oh the studio's like oh yeah like we put it in front of random people and they tell us if you're gonna be able to keep it that way or if you're gonna be able to change huh what's I I don't understand this process like what's going on like just really freaked out because of my first studio endeavor and I just was like this is I don't know what this is so sitting there with like random lovely random people in like a random town like not really in LA like kind of far watching them walk in and be like oh they're gonna hate this look they're duck bait they're not gonna be into kidding big what is this uh and like scoring what was it like a 97 out of 100 like crazy numbers and Studios like let's do another one serious so they did a second one scored even higher I was like okay little collar pop it's good we keep it going so going through that process which was crazy the first time we decided to play the film at AFI which is a festival in LA we had wrapped the film in July AFI was in November view filmmakers out there not really enough time to put together a 20 million dollar film properly but we did it we're at AFI the film is going I had been up all night the night before I went into the bathroom I vomited I cried I was like they're gonna put me in directors jail I barely just started making films like it's cool maybe Ben can help me get like another 200 grand like I got stories like I can do like I was freaking myself out in the bathroom I come out of the bathroom I'm standing on the side because I never sit during screening I'm sat in it standing on the side the last things are going and I was just like you know that horrible moment when you have to show your film for the first time and you're just like and then they go what what are they doing was it that bad and it was a standing ovation and then tweet started to come through it's Ryan really really is this a joke what's going on I remember that day and just being so sleep-deprived that I really didn't even believe what was going on that it was being well-received that the story was working the first tweets and reviews they were wow this New York premiere at the Ziegfeld Theatre in New York where the last time I was there it was as a publicist on the red carpet for Dreamgirls and I remember being a publicist on that carpet and thinking maybe one day I'll have a film here and I was standing there in a gown introducing my film and also saying I can't breathe at the same time that was good the legends ball at Oprah's house just at her house two days at the mansion in Santa Barbara with food that is like nothing I've ever put in right now um the grounds you know the grass it's like I've never seen that type of green it's just so nice and all the real legends from the civil rights movement are there and it was the first time that they saw the film she rented a theater in Santa Barbara and they saw the film and tears and hugs from the real people and you're just like what's going on breathtaking and then you know Rotten Tomatoes ten hundred percent ten reviews that's good twenty hundred percent positive 20 30 40 50 60 80 reviews 100% freshman rotten tomato the only film that had it at that time I'm thinking they're not gonna vote me a director's chair thank God opening day on Christmas doing that nerdy tour with David the LBJ stuff mmm and the strength of friends and colleagues and fans of the film to get through all that all that drama with my head still on straight the first time I saw the guys perform glory live great all the awards chatter the awards nominations the awards non nominations the award shows Oh Lord so many awards the dresses the styling the Prada flying to Italian seamstresses out to get these hips just right in the dress they were like we're trying to fit it remotely but it's not working let us send someone out it's so that really two lovely simple Italian ladies came and they're like flowing and sewing um it was great um the white house walking up in the white house knowing that the fifty a hundred years before the first film to ever screen in the White House was a birth of a nation birth of a nation first film to ever screen in the White House and a hundred years later to the Year salma being screened by our beautiful black president and then dinner with his him and his wife in the residence nice I was like oh I thought we were just coming to show the movie do you want to have dinner yes I do want to have dinner actually I think it might have been because I was rolling with Oprah but it's okay because you know just so lovely to be able to have that time and wow they're just so cool marching in Selma bringing Selma back to Selma right watching across that bridge and watching the people of Selma watch their history in their story I can't describe London taking it from the London taking the film to Berlin the image Awards the Grammys this little luncheon I was invited to at Diane von Furstenberg house she's looking fabulous I'm like wow you're so beautiful she's like freaking me out a little bit Edie and and Meryl Streep walks up to me and wants to talk about Summa I can't tell you what she said because I was just like oh you're you're Meryl Streep and you're yes you're Meryl Streep fantastic whoa alfre woodard gave me a dinner in in in in LA where all the black actresses I mean literally every black actress who was in town came to celebrate me the film each other I mean they were all there it was just like a like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen a beautiful night the Spirit Awards which were really fun the Oscars glory glory and the realization at the Oscars that blew my mind which was the big deal for me out of the whole journey that it was a room in LA that it's not anything but a big room in LA with very nice people dressed up and applauding and it's cool is very cool but my works worth is not based on what happens in around for about that room and that that was at this point in my career three films in to just have that lift it off like this is not this is not what I'm striving for like to be sitting there and watching the film nominated for Best picked what Best Picture and the guys and they're performing and they win in anything and we dressed in the Protestant and I'm like okay and I'm just like wow okay this is just like I'm looking around the room and it's just like this it's just a room with very nice people applauding but this cannot be the basis of what we do this is not determined the worth of my work and that for me at this point was it was a revelation in that moment I was like stunned and starstruck by that revelation for the next couple of weeks and certainly in that moment so none of that was my intention that I outlined to you my intention was to serve the story but these are dreams these are things I couldn't even have dreamed about if I would have put a cap on what I wanted by stating I want good box office I want good in New York Times review I want this I really believe that I would have been blocking in some way limiting what happened because I feel that's what happened before now the film is opened in over three dozen countries around the world from Chile to Australia from Hong Kong to Italy a day doesn't pass since that very first premiere at AFI that someone doesn't walk up to me write me tweet me text me and tell me how the story served them emotionally entertainment why it's spiritually film geek wise politically culturally and I say all this to invite you to go inward and see what happens with an intention of service and not all that other stuff I didn't do it on purpose I did it by accident and I could see what happened so now I'm really going to try to do it on purpose and just try to share what I learned with other people you know we don't see things how they are we see them how we are and I had to start asking myself why do you want that why do you want that phrase why do you need it what is it giving you and I started to ask myself that often this author that I like Gary Zhukov I said somewhere when the Sun shines it doesn't say how'd I do today are you appreciating me yeah it just shines that's all you have to do is shine do your work and shine and it just comes sometimes just making yourself at home is revolutionary a guy named Paul Beatty said that just being at home at home in your skin at home in your art at home in your work wanting nothing but to do your work and share it it seems simple but it eludes us and when I find myself embarking on this new project that I'm doing now I investigated my intention and my attention on that and move forward in that space not with the distractions and I'm just watching what happens and it feels really good I promise it's good because that's your lane right your lane it's not all that other stuff when you're in your lane there's no traffic right when you're in your lane it goes from here to where you want to go if where you want to go is a true place something that really nourishes you everything clears and that's what I experienced this past year my intention this morning was to share this idea with hopes that it might touch one person who needed to hear it that would be a gift for which I would be grateful I hope you're out there somewhere and thank you for listening oh thank you thanks thank you yay they're saying we have time for a few questions they're saying we have time for 20 minutes of questions uh so does anyone have any questions or not even questions anything you want to say something you're feeling tell us about your movie that's playing a good song you heard whatever hi hey are you doing I know you want Twitter yeah do we have mics for people is it over here someone gonna do the field on you oh yeah shout yours out sure sure she's asking about the women in the script thanks for the question and always giving me cool tweets ya know there weren't any when any women in the script in a significant way Coretta was I mean not even tangential I think at one point she was like go get him go get him go get him Martin and so you know that's just not gonna do so we you know they they were always on the they the women of the movement never got their due I don't think in the way that they should have I don't know what women yeah there's a great scholar that I love to listen to speak her name is Brittany Cooper and she was listening to a speech that she did that was online the other day when she was talking about how the intellectual labor of women is always disregarded and so certainly the intellectual labor that women went to the movement is is not in the history books so it was imperative to put in Amelia Boynton Coretta Scott King Annie Lee Cooper Ritchie gene Jackson Diane Nash and and make sure that they were present in the film so thank you for that okay so I'm doing properly now hi right here hey Ava hi I'm Jeremy Burgess I'm born and raised in Birmingham my mother lived in Marion during the movement thank you brought us to tears so as someone that comes from a place like Birmingham it makes me wonder how did it take half a century for this story to get told yeah I don't know I wasn't there but you know yeah I mean I think you know really obviously the studios aren't lining up to make films about black protagonists about freedom and dignity as it pertains to black people when people of color being the drivers of their lives um so that's not what should we make this year Tom oh let's make that black people being autonomous and independent and and all of that but then also you know I think there was a lot of you know early on challenges around the estate in the way that that would be approached and and I think also the films that were not that our films the end-all be-all because there should be 10 more films about Cain but the film's just had a hard time approaching such an epic life like a lot of the scripts it was as a challenge to put your arms around it so I think one of the great things about Selma is when I came into the project one of the one of the good things that the original screenwriter did do was narrow down the window and say we will explore King through the this very abbreviated amount of time of Selma and try to get a full picture of him through this time I think that approach really helped propel Selma forward but I don't know if any of those are good answers it just wasn't meant to be to think that it came out at this kind of cultural moment where there were so many things speaking the film was in conversation with actual things that were happening on the ground around voting about police aggression about the you know the breaking of black bodies all of that you know it just feels like the film one to be out now so you know thank you hi hi hi hi hi I was really impressed by some I thought it was really important beautiful amazing filmmaking and I'm really excited about your work and I wonder if you could tell us anything about the series you're working on now because I'm so pumped because thank you I decided I was just gonna do a TV year I'm like totally engrossed in a trance and enamored by all the stuff that's going on in television I mean our tours writer directors going there and being able to tell a story that's elongated we don't have to just fit it into two hours you can tell a story of a 13 episode 22 episodes I've done one episode of scandal and really had fun on it and thought wow maybe I can get involved and more of a more than just the director coming in and serving the the writers vision maybe I can start to create shows and so two shows that I'm working on this season love to get them both on air one of them's already greenlit straight to series I'm doing it for a friend of mine who owns a network and so she said do you want a series and I was like yes and then she said okay we'll do you and I was like cool so that's what I'm shooting this summer but then also this other story came up that I really love this is the one that I'm shooting now prepping now with Inbal called for justice which is about modern-day freedom fighters this elite unit of the FBI that investigates civil rights abuses and what a civil rights look like in 2015 so each week they have different cases whether it's a transgender murder anti-muslim sentiment anti-semitic sentiment the first episode that I'm directing is kind of a Ferguson like case but to think that you have this procedural like it's for CBS so you know it's not going to be Game of Thrones with the edgy but you know within the context of a network procedural to be able to kind of slip in some stories about marginalized folks that aren't usually on the forefront and the lead is a black woman she leads a multicultural unit of freedom fighters it's led by anika Noni Rose foolish Rashad is in it so I'm having fun with it having fun with it I my intention is to put out something that just gives a different view of you know American life than what we usually see on the front pages and to do that on the biggest most kind of Middle America network that I could find and so that's gonna be hopefully something CBS wants to pick up once we make thank you so much my name's Felicia hatch a quick question the big C word compromise can you talk about that process of giving up your writing credit for someone if there was any internal you know what you were going on to make that final this internal struggle yes yeah it's not easy to have someone's name else's name when you work but ultimately the film would have been made if it wasn't and my intention was to serve the story not served myself not served my writing credit I'm gonna truly truly I could say on my mother on my dad who I looked like that was all that was ever in my mind and so yeah it was difficult it was really really tough and I fought it and I tried but ultimately it was either you do this and we can make the film or you don't do this and we can't make the film was a contractual thing and it's I did and the story is in the world and that was the most important thing more than more than that stuff that doesn't really even matter yeah thank you hi my name is Sheree Mitchell I'm known on Twitter as digital sister so I do tweet you every once in a while I do have a big question Ava ET see if anybody wants to join the party I had the honor of spending some time with dr. Dorothy Height and she was there for the I have a dream speech for King and the challenge that I haven't and I was so I want to ask you is a lot of the history that isn't told by women when you finally get to have that opportunity to do that do you think that that will change the way that we see our selves in black America in America in general because we don't see enough women like you who are able to produce films that give a voice to our lives mm-hmm no I mean yeah I think it'll definitely change as more women of all colors are able to share and create create these images I mean images I always say affect the way we see ourselves and the way that we are seen and so the image is vital and if there's a dearth of them then it affects the way we see ourselves and the way that we are seen and so that has to expand and it has to expand by any means necessary mining means early on was by making a film for $50,000 taking money I was saving for my house to make it it was essential and imperative that I do it even though I look back and I see that I was doing it you know through intentions that were more material based they were they were smaller than they should have been wanting to prove something you know it was still a first step and getting to the place where I hope I'm going and so you know that the key is just to begin just to just to begin and that that's why this talk is just to offer a different idea as to how to begin do you think that was part of the criticism of LBJ but you got was because because of women because your view of the story oh they were just grouchy okay I don't know yeah clearly was cause of my view of the story it got to a whole thing about what is truth and what is fact but what's true for me is not true for him so what we're gonna argue about you can make your movie and I'm gonna make mine which is done and out and sorry it's out there which is basically what it was so no disrespect but that's that's that's what it is thank you doing it thank you hi hi Twitter handle at salsa it's my first official I like this let's just do this identification take you more geek the nerd if you have 20 million dollars would you make the same movie called in the middle of nowhere middle of nowhere would I make the same movie bad $29 two hundred thousand I'm fascinated that you can make a movie for two hundred thousand and then another movie for twenty million and they're still both movies right and we're released and yeah so if you have twenty million dollars would you go back and make the same movie oh middle nowhere yeah no I would you know like III still want to make small small budget films I think in this day and age of filmmakers we need to be flexible you know I love Soderbergh because he'll go make oceans and then he'll make a bubble you know what I mean he'll make you know girlfriend experience and he'll move to the Nick and he's you know like spike you know he made commercials and Docs and shorts and films and narratives and it's just about being interdisciplinary across categories and not being so bogged down with the number to tell any story for any number so I just I'm trying to stay in that place that's why I was important for me to go not go from a twenty million dollar film to another film for more equal but to just completely change gears and go a different way and challenge myself in that way so but no if I had twenty million dollars right now someone had me twenty million dollars Ben if you found someone to give me twenty million dollars I'd like try to make four films with that instead of one because I would rather be consistent and be able to have momentum and continue to make my work without asking permission I so I'd stretched the twenty and and make four films for the next four years I think we'd all appreciate that because you make great okay let's find me twenty million dollars hi hi Ava my name is jessica van klein thank you so much for coming and just sharing i was so inspired just hearing everything you had to say i know everyone's asking a lot of questions about Selma but I kind of want to just delve a little deeper into your mind so I know it's like a creative one project does not define your whole being so I kind of want to know do you have any dreams or desires to step into another genre maybe action adventure sci-fi anything and how do you feel like you'll be able to do that without the current audience relying on you to provide content with civil and social undertones yeah no I want to tell all kinds of stories I'm not funny so it'll never be a cop for sure I really I can't that would be disastrous but now I want to explore all kinds of things I'm a big Octavia Butler fan somebody gave me the rights to kindred I was like let me just put it out there but no I all kinds of genres I think are are you know in the wheelhouse of what I want to explore I'm also kind of getting interested in VR right now virtual reality storytelling so I'm trying to like tell every story every which way so no definitely looking forward to what's God willing what what's ahead thank you thank you hello I was really fascinated by your your talk the intention behind your attention or yeah so my question is I'm curious do you think it's gonna be how do you think it's gonna be when you actually do it on purpose I know I don't know I'm excited right that's exactly what it is I'm excited I'm testing it out I might be back next year to be like y'all that doesn't work George scratch that let's try something new but I'm doing that now on this on this film and I've also just been trying to incorporate it in my life what about tips like a couple of tips on how would you do that on purpose how to do it on purpose yeah well I start with the the the the gratitude thing always centers me so just in any kind of loud situation stopping and figuring out what I'm grateful for in the situation like you know when I was you know woke up one morning and there were two stories in the front page of the New York Times calling me a hate monger and a distorter of history I was like what am i grateful for this moment well this is great promotion for my film maybe someone will see this and be like I want to see what that gals doing and then that'll help us I mean you know just trying to deconstruct whatever situation and find you know the the blessing or whatever it is to be grateful in it and so that's my first way in and then that really opens me up to start to think about you know a clearer way to approach whatever I'm facing that's my tip thank you ten ten more minutes hi hi I'm Diane Hyde I'm from Oakland Oh from Oakland yes so I just want to thank you for who you are it reminds me of the chant that says we are the ones that we've been waiting for hmm thank you for that and also I just want to thank you cuz I want everybody to turn around and look and see how gorgeous this audience is together and that's because of you so thank you for that all kinds of people yeah and I have a more personal question which is what spiritual tradition were you raised and what your what are some of your spiritual practices now outside of gratitude you know I don't like to talk about that oh you know because I think it's personal I always feel a little allergic to people that that talk about that in a way that's um that's getting into I don't know personal I've talked about in the context of my word but I mean I can tell you I was raised Catholic I went to all-girls Catholic school high school we had fantastic gray wool skirts the guys really thought we were hot but I went to Catholic school for 12 years so I was raised my education was through a religious environment and then went to UCLA and of course you have to reject all of that and then you have to find your way and each person finds their own thank you we're all in that journey thank you i hi my name is Courtney Ziegler I'm from Oakland City oh my goodness hi hi I'm so excited I love your work like one of my facebook pictures my heart melted I think is can I take a selfie with you I love your work and everything and I would love that a photograph with you that's the question yes yeah yeah um but also thank you so much for I'm independent filmmaker as well but thank you so much for going through the links and the emotional links and the financial whatever to make sure our faces are shown on the screen it is so important and it's so beautiful and you're so right everything Salma came out at the moment that it's supposed to all of your work I've seen and I just admire and love everything that you do I'm such a stance so thank you thank you brother hi Ava my name is Mikayla Adams I'm a huge journalist representing 91.7 co-op radio I hope the show called what's your status now the question I'd like to ask because I'm so in love with how humble you are and how artistic you are um but pertaining to Selma and just film in general why do you think it's important to end the erasure of female revolutionaries and film in the erasure of why is it important well um well it's it's an absence that's unacceptable to be a revolutionary doesn't necessarily mean you're you know a black panther you know you can be a revolutionary in your own life you know as I said sometimes just to be present just to be still just to bear witness to your own life in a way that's not influenced by everything outside of you is a revolutionary act certainly I believe to make film is a radical act for anyone of any color any stripe but even more so for folks who are absent from the screen more often than that and so it's vital mandatory and we must do the work thank you yeah thank you all right hi hey how you doing first of all thank you for your work thank you for your support of other filmmakers friend of Shaka King and I appreciate your support of yes new leads everybody check it out yeah great phone I just had a question in terms of being on a really short timeframe with a very historically significant piece what was just what was strategy and what kind of strategy do you recommend dealing with some research and and having to go through all of his speeches and rewrite them sure what was your strategy in terms of having such a short time frame but right well I was fortune thank you I was fortunate and we have time for one question here and one question here afterward the I was fortunate because I was an African American Studies major at UCLA so I knew my movement history so I wasn't a director coming in like reading the basic books and trying to figure it out I had that foundation I had a deep understanding of the place because my father is from there you know my politics are very aligned with you know with progressive politics around the time and and so so I wasn't starting from zero so the research was able to be a little bit deeper we were able to be more nuanced and layered with the characters and and the theories that represent the strategies the tactics everyone didn't believe and I have a dream he was more than that you know he was a radical he's a revolutionary he was a tactician he was a strategist he was a badass really he's been homogenized and so my view was just to really you know reconstruct him with the vigor and the vitality and the vibrancy that he had is just to tell the truth as I saw it so so that was the base of it and beyond that I'm just a great team mark Freiberg our production designer Paul gorn's one of my producers Bradford Spencer all coming together to really just research and figure out how can we even push that even further so it was an honor it was a great time Thanks hi my name is lien first of all thank you for an amazing keynote it was very inspirational and I think you're putting a little you know amazing got good enough oh okay good thank you that started building off other comments and questions made I think diversity is incredibly important and you now as a woman of color who has showcased her incredible talents such an immense and powerful film what do you think of the representation and diversity in media today oh not enough haha not enough and you know yeah we have to do the work so you know for me it's not about saying it's not diverse enough hey you guys make it diverse it's about I mean what what are we asking for we the work has to be done people who care about the work do the work that has to be done stop asking people who don't care about the work to do the work and do the work and so if I look at television you know if I look at television and I feel like there's something missing then I need to say okay and not something missing there's beautiful things out there but if we want more if you want more then you have to go do more and go do the work and so you know I think it's just really you know a lot of people talk and I just try to act and try to or help other people act or encourage or encourage us to do what we need to do as opposed to talking about it thank you thank you so they tell me this is my final right final right here hi Ava I'm Sean Taylor at tea Sean Taylor on Twitter I loved your speech I'm glad you rewrote it I don't know what you were gonna say before but it spoke directly to me I'm a publicist who's becoming a filmmaker and in fact it did spirit really directly then totally I'm here with Chaz so just may be my only town and tell you Chaz Ebert says hello oh good we're headed to our panel afterwards so I have a million questions but I'm gonna Center on one because you know you made narrative film the first couple times and my film is a narrative documentary and I start writing and I tear it up and I go back and then I film then I go back when do you write your narrative for your narrative film do you write it along the way do you wait and you do all your film anything then go back or do you just plan to just you just gonna tear it up and back and forth I'm just kind of spinning right now mmm well I'm fascinated by the narrative documentary that you're making because that's two forms but ya know when I make a narrative film I write the script I feel the script is the guide to what we're doing out there of course you stay flexible and open you work with amazing actors like Steven roots sitting on the floor I can't believe he's here and he and and you let that be your guide in kind of your Bible as you move forward you have faith in that script and you cling to that you recite scripture from the scripts right actors hate that or I hate it when actors do that to me but the script says it's like look don't tell me my script back to me right or when I say well there's evidence in the script they're like okay look okay we know that the script but you know really that script is a place where everyone can come back to as an anchor so that's imperative to do for me you know I mean we we see you know Linkletter works differently you know cat Candler I think is here she works differently there's lots of beautiful filmmakers that are here and everyone has a different process and so you find your own way and I'm sure you'll find yours I look forward to seeing your phone thank you thank you thank you all very much this was fun I appreciate it thanks for coming have a good fast and we're sourcing the ladies that will come to our Academy and two avenues first of all through other companies that would like to take our program and have us train their ladies or through the Ministry of Labor and the Human Resources Development Fund will be working with ladies that then don't have jobs and what we would do is work with almost like preferred vendors and do on-the-job training where they've got two days in our Academy and three days on the job

Channel: SXSW

Views: 32,460

Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: Sxsw, “South By Southwest”, South, By, West, Southby, Southwest, Fest, Festival, Austin, Texas, Conference, Lineup, Keynote, Speaker, Panel, Interview, Music, Film, Movie, Interactive, EDU, Tech, Technology, Gaming, Video Games, Media, Entertainment, News, Business, Training, Creative, Entrepreneur, Development, ACL, CES, TED, Talk, Comic Con, Red Carpet, Live, Performance, Showcase, Concert, TV, Television, 2018, 2019

Id: LiKezIqDSc8

Length: 55min 52sec (3352 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 17 2015