BlackStar: Conversation with Ava DuVernay

I think we're all grateful that you're here with us happy to be here thank you I have some questions about you know your influences that I want to talk about and then we'll get into some of the work and maybe process a little bit but I wanted to ask you about your early influences and you know when you were younger what you thought you wanted to be and who were the people that you wanted to emulate at that time like specific people I just want to be my mom she was a young mom she had me when she was 18 so when I was in school she was young and hot all right she's still hot but she's older and and she had this big hair and she red lipstick and wear high heels and she would come pick me up from the third grade looking like Beyonce like it was this and everybody was like her mama so young she's so pretty she's so young she's so pretty and she was just smart and a hustler from Compton we were from Compton and she's just you know an incredible lady so I wanted to be her then I got into school I wanted to look like her and be her but be a lawyer and so I really really thought I was gonna be a lawyer I remember in the eighth grade my godmother Charlene got me a briefcase and I thought a few short steps away like that what else like I've got the briefcase like it's happening for me this is happening and but the and then as I got into UCLA when I went to UCLA I was gonna do broadcast journalism produce not be on but I went to produce broadcast journalism be in the newsroom coming up with stories and then I was on the OJ Simpson unit I was an intern on the OJ unit and I was like yeah I don't want to do this and so yeah but early on it was somewhere between law and journalism okay I remember wanting to be a lawyer as well but only cuz I thought I would make me money because you thought it would make you money yeah I would watch LA law and I thought you know wear suits and make money you sure it's death so can you talk a little bit about being from Compton and how one parent from the South how that's shaped your aesthetic and the stories you've chosen to tell it's just very black you know my mom is from Compton my father's from Lowndes Kenly Allowance County Alabama I mean it's like black it's like hood and country black like mixed together and and no just an appreciation of black family and black community and black skin and a black language and I was aware of it in a sense of that I was in the midst of something beautiful but not really able to articulate what it was like I always really felt nice loved loved where I grew up love black people loved going to the country to my father's family loved you know growing up where I did and how I did and it's just had an appreciating appreciation of it early on even though I didn't have the tools to articulate what that meant to me the theme of this year's festival is resistance which it feels like you've explored in your work you know through obviously the 13th but also through a firm and array and looking out for it was about array that out to Stephanie Boston all the array Mavericks out there [Applause] and even your choices to you know include mostly all women directors most many of a color and queen sugar and so just wondering where you got that sense of justice from and when it developed I don't know I mean growing up in Compton I saw a lot of things that weren't right and wanted to try to figure out a way to do better and be better I don't know my aunt Denise since gone on to the great great place beyond life kind of imbued in me a sense of social justice early social justice with art she would take me to Amnesty International concerts she got me listening to you to remember the first time I listened to pride in the name of love and I saw this white man from Ireland talking about dr. King in that song and I was like wow there's a power in that I went to these Amnesty International concerts were like all of these artists were there and and you were it was there to raise money for a larger cause so for me like art and activism got kind of solidified really early on there and I just you know grew up like a lot of young people I think kind of activated around the injustice is in the world and I just like stuck with me can you remember the first film you were obsessed with obsessed with probably dirty dancing a good movie I mean nobody puts Baby in a corner this is a fad that everyone needs to understand and somehow I was about you know I I guess I was a little awkward and I definitely can't dance I mean gosh was I baby in so small way I don't think so I don't know it's just a very good movie that had like all the elements like some day I wish I could make a movie like that where it's just and I feel like I can't kind of like just go make a fun movie that doesn't mean anything you know it's just some folk dancing and falling in love but yeah I was kind of me and my sister chair kind of obsessed with that phone what's the film that made you want to become a filmmaker probably it wasn't just one film it was when I start to get exposed to the LA rebellion filmmakers highly Charles Burnett and Julie - and all of their work started to give me a vocabulary a cinematic vocabulary that went beyond the independent films that I was saying because I liked independent films a lot and I would you know consume independent films I like the the the the pace the luxurious pace and I like to get into the nuance of life and the little moments but they weren't I didn't see a lot of black people doing it and and so was those films that I saw early on I saw those films the same year that I actually saw my first Spike Lee film cuz my first Spike Lee film that I saw was mo better I didn't see the other ones I don't know why like I saw mo better blues my freshman year in college at UCLA so those films must have come right like come out when I was in high school and my mom's not taking me to go see she's got to have it I feel like I saw school days and do the right thing after anyway the moment that I feel in my mind was that that freshman year in college and I saw those LA rebellion filmmakers because they were connected to you Sayle as well and the spike film and I thought wow but even from then I didn't make films I didn't think you know that was possible possible to be the maker I just thought that I I love them and enjoyed them and so that started my education in terms of black imagery in cinema well that leads right into my next question which is how did you make the decision to pivot away from PR into directing and just you know it's a question sure that light right I can't see anybody up there that light does that lightning to be on is that the light I'm being lit with it doesn't need to be you know is this our light here sorry I'm just good because I really can't see anybody's faces out there yeah Eugene or Linda Oh somebody what was that it's the pretty oh it's this okay I mean but if you mind we can talk I like to see people that's all yeah can we turn it off yeah it's off thank you okay now I can see all of you it was just light it was just like I was looking into looking into a white light look at all these beautiful people but I just wanted to ask you like how you I think lots of people are weekend warriors which you've said before and they think about you know I'm gonna make this film I'm gonna release an album etc but you actually did it and so I wanted to ask you you did you have a vision board did you get a reading in Cuba like what happened how did you how did you know that you could really like pivot away and instead I was a grown up I was a grown woman working in another industry I didn't pick up a camera until I was 32 so I I was already you know and my job as a publicist I was a publicist for filmmakers so I was creating red carpets and taking them out of the country and doing tours for their films and pitching journalists and I had my own agency I started my agency when I was 27 so I was grown fully grown and so I did not go into the idea of filmmaking thinking that it was going to be anything sexy you know what I mean I just had stories that I wanted to tell and I really there one is there wasn't a space like this at the time where I live a pan-african Film Festival was in LA and it's a beautiful festival and so I thought maybe pan-african maybe some black film festivals and and that would and I would be overjoyed if that was if that happened so I said well I'll make a thing and I write a thing on the weekend and maybe I can make something to be in one of those festivals and that's how I started doing it it's much different than how I hear people talking about things now which and maybe then but how I hear so many people talking about things where they're talking about like their goal being so divorced from just the joy of making your thing and sharing it with people it's like they're talking about being something that has nothing to do with the thing and I just remember at my mind that time I thought oh I want to tell the story about my friends you know this is the life that's the phone we met at my very first documentary first film and I came to black Lily anybody know black Lily I came and showed that film at black lily and I was just like I made it this is it's a few short steps and Here I am and that was all I wanted you know I just wanted I mean we were talking backstage that you were we had a screening and I was like my or there's not enough people here to see this and you're like okay another place because I just wanted people to see my film that's that's all I didn't want to be anything else I just wanted people to see my story and I wanted to tell another one so that's I don't know what your question was but that that's great that's great I mean well I guess I just wanted to ask how you were propelled because he's like that's so I'm sorry that filming just that desire to make the thing so much to tell those story about my friends in that place I had a script that I really wanted to tell and I was a grown woman with the business I had been on those red carpets I've been in those junkets in all those rooms I had been to the Oscars walking people down the carpet I knew what it was it's just a carpet is the same people it's the same it's just they give you the thing you know what I mean like it it was just in my head it didn't hold a mystique and and and as I continued as a filmmaker that mystique started to morph and changed for me and and become different things to me both good and bad but at the time when I started I knew none of that stuff was possible what like I knew I knew and it wasn't even craving it I just wanted to tell my little story and share it with some black folk and so that was my drive at the time but cuba's sounds like it could have been a good way well I just say because even I think all the more why you wouldn't do it because you had a business you had you know what I mean oftentimes I think we get ourselves when I have mentees or intern to people who work with me like coming out of school I'm always trying to encourage them like not to work because once you start working and making money and get a car and have a loan unit I mean you just get in that cycle and you often are risk-averse right and so just the fact that you would do it is just sort of I was like you know how did that happen that business I owned that business and it was successful and I gave me some flexibility and some leeway to try new things I think but it's not a normal course yeah so you didn't study film at UCLA I think you studied African American Studies African American Studies in English so I was curious where you found training as a director and if you pursued any other artistic disciplines that would contribute like photography or theatre I know don't know how to do anything else in this how did I train as a filmmaker well no one's asked me that question I feel like DVD commentaries Q&A Q&A is like this cuz in LA there's a cute you can't walk two feet without getting hit by a Q&A right so there's q and a's all over the place and there was like a UCLA Extension thing where I got took a couple class and I was like reading books on screenwriting always thought I was around a real thing came from directors because I was on sets and traveling with directors as their publicist so when you're with the director is it they called a junket and a junket is when we open a movie and instead of moving the actor around to like the 50 different places that he has to do interviews with we sit him in a chair and you bring all the press to the actors so over and over during the day they're saying the same thing 50 different times as everyone's asking the same questions so I would coordinate those junkets and I would hear these directors talking about their work I would be on the set and watch me I was able to watch Spielberg direct watch Michael Mann direct watch watch some of these things and so and I would see through those things that I would do and things that I would never do so that was a great eight education and then yeah it was really though I would say the directors commentaries because I'm telling you is the cheapest film school you can do imagine this your favorite movie the director is going to sit down with you one-on-one and walk you through their movie what they did what they were thinking about how that shot came to be like it's gold for people who want to learn how to do it and so I just I've watched so many directors commentaries when I did my first directors commentary I was I wrote out what I was gonna say nobody nobody writes that would they just get there and they just talk I had notes and the guy who was directing it was like um can you not read the notes cooking you make it sound a little bit more like you actually directed the film because I was just like and then she moved the camera to the left I was so sick because they name it so much to me so all that to say there are all kinds of ways to learn how to do it and the main ways to pick up a camera and start yeah I was reading there's an article that came out in the Atlantic yesterday and there's this whole paragraph about you hustling DVDs like I think a 40 yeah and I just love that idea of you you know hustling like a rapper with mixtapes and I was just thinking about what are the other ways that hip-hop aesthetics and politics have shaped you oh gosh I mean I'm fully formed by it truly it's my very first film featuring with Finland that were made was about hip hop was called this is the life it was about a little-known group of artists in South Central who were friends of mine who did transformative work in South Central at a time when all of the record companies were in South Central looking for the next NWA and they signed all these kids who were going to more gangster way and they didn't sign all the kids that were going more kind of esoteric organic like uplifting way and so it's about that kind of cult group of kids and who are now legends in the space freestyle fellowship Jurassic five far side all those guys figures of speech and so he the V and then the next film the first time anyone ever gave me money to make something and I you know I that's why I can't hate them you know what I mean I can't I can't I can I could have an opinion I can be critical but I have to be positive in that critique because the very first I was looking for money to make something cuz I put all my money and this is the life and I need to make another thing to keep it going and I didn't have anymore and it was Beatty gave me my first money to be a director paid and was a big big deal for me to make a film called my Mike sounds nice about women in hip-hop so so my first two two things were about it because it's just what I know and feels so deeply that's why I feel a little sad these days that I don't know what's going on in it you know what I mean like I feel like it's so me coursing through my veins and yet I talk to my little brother and he's talking to about people I'm like little who and what I'm like oh you know it's you have to say you're old you're you're older now you you've you've moved into the next generation of hip-hop right this is like people who loved Houdini felt when cube was out they were like what is that right like but I still maintain the 90s was the Golden Age I mean I'm sorry young people it's a lot of old people in this room this is just also somewhat related to the hustling idea but I just remember also when I will follow came out and I went to one of your screenings at the AMC in Santa Monica and you were standing outside greeting people and that was when we reconnected and I just was like that personal touch of doing that I was wondering how many screenings like that you went to and just wondering sort of how you is that coming from training as a publicist or just how did you know to like have be part of the package people have any access to you because I'm not thinking about them don't think about me I enjoy it right like I just like meeting people someone's gonna come on their Saturday when you have you're in LA you're in Philly you're and all these mates is you anything you can do you're gonna take hard-earned money that you work woke up in the morning and went to work for and you're gonna pay to see some that came out of my head and I have an opportunity to see that's why I turn off the lights let me see people like I that is a big deal to me even now you know and and so no it wasn't like have access to we know what I cared no I don't know you they want to meet you I was just like please come see my movie like what are you coming to see my eyebrow me I was I was out there like it was me this man you know who it was a really beautiful filmmaker who people were talking about a lot right now is by the name Matthew cherry me and Matt sherry and Tulane Jones out there hustling China move people off the Third Street Promenade into the theatre browbeating people what are you here to see I'm here to see this nah you don't want to see that you wanna see this if AMC only knew it was horrible but that was the first film that we also had people doing that in four other cities around the country one was Philly and one was Mike DP and he did that here in Philly but that all cool over there which that's what away is that's what array is and it was a Karen toric in Seattle I don't know if she's here but they were doing it and it was Gabrielle blue and Mackenzie comma in New York they were doing it and we had just put all the it was like all the black stars before black star right like all the little black film festivals that you know are in the shadow of the big old Sun dances and all that stuff but just doing great work we all got together and we called ourselves a firm at the time and the African American Film Festival releasing movement and we started ripped with that film I let my film be the guinea pig and we started releasing films on the same day in these cities and we at the highest per screen average of any film released by a studio that weekend people came people came we had no budget I mean you you found out about it because it's probably some shady looking maverick walked up to you with the poster it was like you want to want to see a movie we're just getting our hustle on right and and we just we just did it on our own so yeah that connection doesn't come from anything but a joy so doing research for this I discovered a film I hadn't heard of it just from 2006 called Saturday night life can you talk about what how you how that story came to be and you know just even the production process and what happened with that film it is a film that will never be seen it's my very very when I say I picked up a camera for the first time at 32 I made that and it was my film school I didn't I can't I won't watch it I one day but not any day soon but I wanted to make a short I was still full throttle working working as a publicist I worked as a publicist all the way up until I won that Sundance Award and then after I thought and so that was four films I'd made four films distributed four films was distributing the work of other people and still working as a publicist with clients before I felt sure enough as a filmmakers like okay I'm gonna take the plunge and do it full time and so Saturday night life was a film I just wanted to make something I was you know in my early 30s I've never gone to film school I didn't know how to start and I thought maybe I can make something that'll play at a festival that's all I wanted was just to play at a festival and so I saved a little bit of money and I kept asking my mom what am i what do I make would I make it she said make something that means something to you that but it all had to happen in one place cuz when you move costs more money so anyway I thought of a story is the story of Sur nightlife it's like a six-minute film but it's a story about my mother who at the time was a single mother before she met my dad a single mother with three girls who who to bolster her self-confidence when she didn't have any money or just hard times as a young single mom she would dress us all up you know in our sunday clothes she would put so much grease you know I mean he just greased us down the baby hair popping everything a little Vaseline our Sunday patent shoes she would take us to the store called alpha beta which is like this is a grocery store and in a hood I heard grocery store so we would alpha beta that's a horrible anyway so we go into the store and it'd be her with her three little girls and because the three little girls were so cute she would get the positive attention your girls are so cute they're so pretty you're doing is such a good job and in those moments she would get what she needed to be able to move forward so that's what the short is about it's a lovely idea horribly executed maybe one day help me make it now that I know how to make a movie but it was um it was my my beginning yeah thank you so the first film I saw of yours was this is the life which we discussed but I loved it so much because I was born in LA but I would go back for Christmas in summer sometimes and in high school would go to the good life like that totally job and so I just wondered I think some people know that you were an MC and so I was I was any self-respecting MC is going to own yeah I wasn't MC and I was damn good too I was curious sometimes making a documentary about your own community can be challenging and I was curious what that process was like for you it was it was a crazy process I was dealing with like 30 different artists and the good life was a small black owned health store in the middle of South Central on Crenshaw and on Thursday nights every night in the 90s during the Golden Age of hip-hop they would do an open mic and kids from all over black kids and brown kids from all over LA would come for a chance to sign up get on the bike and spit their rhyme and it became a cult fall it's kind of like lyricist lounge here in New York but doper if I might say and harrassing no cursing no no yeah we couldn't curse it had all these rules so you had to get your opus rhyme out within all these parameters it was very fantastic and you came up with these these kids who had all these different styles of rap and they had all these personas and all these names and it was it's its caucuses in life it's about that it was an electric environment at that time and so but I had to track all those people down pull in all the footage all the stories and I no idea what I was doing never made a film before but it was some comfort in doing it with people that I knew and I subject matter that I knew because although I didn't know filmmaking I knew the subject matter that's why I tell people when you tell making your story if there's something that you want to say or something that you start with what you know at least you know that and then what you don't know you know will fall into place but I felt so confident about my knowledge and my passion for the world that I was able to cobble together I just watched a little bit over the other day it's very low fine it looks like somebody made it on their phone you did very low five but it brings a smile when you were this is a I only want to ask about a couple films so I want to ask about Selma did you have any of those mystical experiences that some people talk about like Julie - when making daughters of the dust when the character I'm trying to think of his name he's the actors first name is Adisa but when he's walking out on a bowl and Inge she said he went into a trance and when Denzel and Spike were making Malcolm X you know their speeches that Denzel started reciting that weren't in the script and Halle Berry talks about similar things and I think becoming Dorothy Dandridge that things happen that were super mystical and I didn't know if anything like that happened yeah so there was a night it's interesting you say that that so there was an item's and we were in Atlanta shooting soma Matt David Oyelowo the British actor who did an amazing job as dr. King he you know had transformed himself to to embody and he's a very very Christian man loves the Lord felt spiritually connected to the material and to dr. King and so there was a moment where we were doing one of the big speeches the biggest speech and when you're in a set you can't go if I have the church set I have to do everything in the church on that day right because I can't I can't go back tomorrow I've got to move on to the next set so we had to do two huge speeches back-to-back because we had the church set real Church grille parishioners from that church a historic black church there and then other extras in the Atlanta area background actors so anyway we get in there we get all the way in literally it's on film I'm about to call action and there's a crack crack huge I mean it was the loudest thing I've ever heard all the lights go out just as David's about to I mean I'm about to call action he's there he's ready he's gonna do these two speeches back-to-back the lights go out we go outside and it is a meteor meteorological event they called it that happened you can look it up it was in Atlanta where this whole sky was anyone a whole sky turned purple he's a real thing it's on record with it was on the rather Channel like I'm not making this up and it was a it was a cross between a thunderstorm that had happened with a certain time of day that was the Sun was setting and literally walked outside it felt like a movie say it felt like sci-fi literally from top to bottom the sky was like a purple to burgundy and we were freaked out and I and and I turned to him and I think maybe this means proceed and and then so we went around to the back of the church and at the back of the church the the purple started to lift lift up and it was like a sunset in purple it was this the most to this day the most incredible act of nature I've ever witnessed on the street in Atlanta behind a church and we were crying and we're emotional and go back in and we shoot these two scenes back-to-back that literally he was a little nervous about before and that breaking the day with that amazing kind of the Majesty that we were able to witness he came back in like possessed by something I mean it was truly transformative to be in the room people right in tears it was a it was an uplifting that happened in that moment and I don't know what that is I've heard it on certain films I think films of import somehow it's our energy and also you know what's in the atmosphere around us that we can't even see you know the energy the spirit the passion all of that comes into a fervor at some point and in some instances creates magic absolutely so I think we're all excited about a wrinkle in time I'm a little worried I'll tell you I wonder if black and brown folks will come I do think I worry about it because I don't know why I don't know why either I don't know why I mean Oprah everyone's coming so I hope we'll come I hope we'll come because that I made it for us to be able to see this brown girl what made it for everyone to be able to see this brown girl as the hero of the whole universe the whole universe this it's not it's not America it's not the world and Earth this sister little sister is hopping planets she's flying she's like she's summoning but you know what I mean just in her jeans and t-shirt from Urban Outfitters like she's doing it all and I love it cuz she doesn't she's not she does have super powers she's just herself and she's able to harness the goodness of herself and the goodness of herself is enough to overpower darkness and it just has such beautiful themes and I really hope people come I really I just want to do a time check how much time do we have Eugene and Patrice how are we doing on time okay so this would be the yeah what I wanted to ask you about a wrinkle in time was how you approach the because I'm obsessed with costume design as you know how you approach the visual world of this film because this is you know so fantastic and if you could talk about that yeah well I was given this book that was written in 1963 by really interesting and kind of fascinating woman named Madeleine L'Engle she wrote this book in 1963 it was rejected by 29 publishers and I can see why the books odd it's a weird quirky little book right it's like if anyone in and it has read the book it is she's got some radical views about society in politics and spirituality embedded in the story of these kids and but she was like putting it all in like she was going in it's got some just great lines that speak so on target with the where we are right now in the world and in our country and so anyway I'm giving this book I usually make movies about people talking in rooms I don't make movies about people flying on creatures and but that was the thing it was a black executive at Disney he's the highest ranking black production executive at Disney and he happens to be mine phrase guys I'm is tend own agenda and he said to me when he was trying to share the book with me and asked me to do the project I don't know and he said imagine the world's you can build he said imagine the world's you can build world yes whole hard planets ava whole planets you decide what they look like you decide what people wear you decide what they say worlds through your vision can you imagine that and I was like yes and I'm gonna do it and so I don't freaking know I did it I we just it's not this piece you know what I mean but literally I was building four planets you know what I mean and what that looks like through someone who grew up half food half country you know what I mean like that's a different process to put all the things that I think are beautiful which has a lot to do with with blackness and and being of color and womanhood and all of that and putting that into this piece that also has to be Disney and so that was the the balancing act and and so yeah we're still cutting but I'm really happy with what it is and I just let my mind go to the farthest reaches the cut the costume design I brought over a brother as Latino brother Paco Delgado did all the costumes he was like honey let me tell you the collar taller more lace Morten landed I was like you start more lace he's like honey with that thick beautiful Spanish accent more lace I said the man said more license with more lace on it yes I mean just passionate with a big beard just loved it the hair the makeup Kim Kimble or let little Johnny's two sisters that headed up that department I mean Kim Kimble Kim Kimble was the is the woman V I am behind Beyonce's hair for the last decade and a half and she just was like she got to have playing Reese Witherspoon's hair in Mindy's hair and Oprah's hair she's like Oprah I see blonde I said well I don't know if Oprah's gonna see blonde let's for Rhys I see red I see red hairs like well let's let me see some sketches so it was just like you know working with other artists but it pushed me into a place and then I get the artists and push them to a place and the actors and then you're on set and you're looking at over went friend she's got a blond braid pompadour and you're like that was good and we're gonna do this so it was just fun everyday fun everyday um I said that was my last question but I have so many here um the last one I went ahead maps are short and then we'll open it up to the audience it's just that so thinking about the films that you've worked on and you're in charge I think we throw out these terms about the differences between men's and women's leadership and I don't know if they're true but there are things that many people hold and so I'm curious if your experience particularly with Queen sugar now what working with so many different women directors is there something that you're seeing that's that you could say is you know could be applied to women directors as a group or no definitely women in the space treat the moment in a more sacred way because it is because we're scarcely there so a woman coming onto the set and you know queen sugar is very much like the family that I grew up in its a total matriarchy I mean it is all the women like all the top hosts are women right and so very secure men need to work in that I mean post-production supervisor casting you know production management all the directing producing director writers room its majority women and and and that vibe is one it's it's it's it's you know it's it's easy to say oh it's the same but it's not it is different women women are just warmer you know what I mean just just want to put your arms around the thing in a certain way not that men don't want to it can't be warm but when you have a whole bunch of women doing a thing it feels different you know the very texture the atmosphere in the room is different I think it comes out and what we make I mean I watched Queen sugar and you know I'm crying every friggin week and I wrote the thing I made the thing and I'm just like damn you know because it comes out of my head and then it goes through the imaginations of all these women who touch it and it comes out even more it's like super sighs more intense vibrating with all this feminine energy and the things that we're interested in in a certain moment you know we're all in this room right now and if everyone went outside and was asked to tell the story of what happened here today everyone would say different things some would people be like I like the dress some of people like it doesn't fit or right it I don't like the dress some people were like were you even looking at the dress what about the thing what what about what she said here oh did she say that no she said this we remember when Rory said this like everyone takes it differently right and so the idea that you can make something it can go through so many hands and also go through so many eyeballs and still come out with the feeling that people share about sugar means that it's a something specialness happen there and I attribute it to being a woman led show so that's I think the difference is I think it's uh it's a warmth so Eugene you're gonna okay so the hives going to do that side another this side so we'll do will take three questions all right so I go one right here unless we somehow end up with extra time he's Maori hello Ava welcome back to the City of Brotherly Love and sisterly affection see you happy to see you as well you educate you elevate you entertain us I'm very curious to know because the when we look at the filmography thus far you've done 13 selma all these diverse films but i'm curious to know what is your ideal when you are alone and thinking what is your dream film or have you not thought of it yet yeah I don't I don't I don't have a dream film that I want to make that I'm striving for which i think is a blessing because it keeps me very open to be able to take whatever comes I mean I think the closest to it and it's not a dream film but it's a film that I was like you know what one day I'd like to make that but and I know that I will so it's not like a dream cuz it's a reality and so much to do was I'm gonna do it I think or be involved with it or help it get made is is a story of Assata Shakur but so I want to make casada but but it's gonna happen I don't know when but it'll happen somehow if it's not me to direct it if it's passed my time to direct it I will somehow help or be able to touch and make sure that that story is told but no big thing I mean for a while there was like a big blockbuster out there and I thought oh gosh maybe I want to make that because then I process it in my head and I thought oh you just wanna make it because it would feel sexy for people say to say you make it you don't really want to spend two years making that you don't really want to go in and tell that story every day right and so it's similar to the conversation you and I were having just about career assessment and what you're doing and what really connects to you so um so yeah no dream just one big dream just keep making stuff yeah thank you I have a two-parter that are completely separate so I'm going to try and make them quick one is I'm thrilled that you've been designated to direct Central Park five just curious to to hear a little bit about what you want to gain from that because there's so many emotions like you talked about with a side of so many emotions and involved in that story and being able to bring it to us and the second is a wrinkle in time is without question my favorite book of childhood and it's a trilogy so the fact that you're doing this you know people have feelings about Batman and in the hands of different directors how different it is so I just curious if you're even able to say if in your development deal with a wrinkle in time if they've offered you the possibility of doing the other two books there you go Ansel Rinku first you know wrinkle in time the reason why I'm a little like well people come is it's really different film for Disney Disney the umbrella of Disney has Pixar it has Lucas Lucas does all of the Star Wars films and has a Marvel that does all the big Marvel right Black Panther Thor Avengers Iron Man Captain America all that stuff and then they have Disney live-action where they do all the princess movies and all the remakes of the fairytales and in its wrinkle in time that doesn't really fit into any of those so it's like a weird little thing that I don't know who was smoking what over there that they let it even happen a hundred million plus dollars right it's like you're gonna give it to me going on so no there's they didn't say let's make sure it three we barely got this one done but but maybe in success those would be done cuz they're really cool books I'm glad you read it and on CP 5 CP 5 is a film that a project that I've developed from the ground up I was remember the story because I'm the same age as the guys remembered the story when it the newspapers when I was in LA and I remember thinking what is wildin what does that mean so I called my cousin who lives in in the East Coast I was like what is wildin mean and they were like why I need a word it's the white people's work right that that came from wildin Wilin out right but it was it said Wilding in the New York Post which is it's like a word that whoever was working at the New York Post that day may I don't know but it was like this weird and I just grabbed me because it's like they've assigned this word to us in terms of something that black young people do and it's not even a real thing and that was a time that I was into journalism I was like this is wrong and so I always had to have that case in my mind then I saw Sarah burns as doc and that got me deeper into it and so I reached out to the guys I reached out to one of them I ended up going to New York meeting with all of them and and asking if they'd let me tell the story and they they gave it to me then I had to go to Hollywood and get it sold which happened well time cuz Selma had happened and I was already I was already making wrinkles so it was kind of hot and and 13th it just come out and so everybody's a little hot well yes I mean not like that but you know what I mean like you know you know I've been cold out there and you can't get a meeting right so you know when you're getting a meeting and everybody's like yeah we'll take the meeting I got some heat today so I that to get Central Park five done and I went to the ended up going around town and it was multiple bid bids and offers on it but it ended up going to Netflix who had an amazing experience with that on 13th and so we're gonna do it five parts one part for each each man and and it got the last one up here right thank you hi miss Eva hi my name is Ania and I'm 15 years old and I have a burning passion for filmmaking I own Beauty scene Productions which is my filmmaking and product of photography company all the money I get from taking photos I put it into my filmmaking I actually just released my first feature-length film which ever shot directed and edited a be on my skin be on my skin change like but um basically when I was 13 you basically gave me the okay that I can go out and I can follow my passion I remember I started off as an actress and I was be on these sets and they were not diverse at all and sometimes the men behind the set they were a little rude when I tried to ask a question but one day I'm we took a school trip to see Selma and after finding out the woman that created that film and just sitting there I just felt so empowered because I always had the passion to do it I just thought you know that I couldn't because of like my demographics and stuff but you gave me the okay and two years later you know I I just sold out my first I sold out my film my films premier 400 people came it was just a blessing but you know I watched you and Miss Michelle Obama and Miss Oprah Winfrey talk about like the laws of attraction and just like giving advice and it's it's please don't stop like you've inspired me and so many other young women as well a time my question to you would be your thoughts on film school um right now at the moment I'm in I'm going to 10th grade and I was you know for a life I've been talking to different film directors actually had the opportunity to have a conversation with John Singleton which was amazing but I've been trying to you know get a taste for it like should I put myself in debt and go to film school or should like I feel like everything you can you can learn everything on the set with experience that's what directors have been telling me and I believe that myself you know YouTube that's that's very school I got my my education for film but would you would you recommend it film school I mean I know you didn't go but would you say well first of all let me say you you make my heart leap with joy and we're all so proud of you all of us robber [Applause] and it sounds it sounds to me like you don't need film school but film school needs you truly and I think I think you know it I can't say whether my first instinct when you were asking me is in my mind I thought oh she should go right she should go you know there's a lot more learn if I could have I would have I didn't I didn't know I didn't know it was something that I could do wanted to do at that time by the time I felt it I somehow had the courage to step into it but if you know this is what you do and there's a school that can help you get deeper into it I would recommend the Howard University film school which is [Applause] [Music] which will really marry the the craft of cinema with your culture which I think is important to you but there's all kinds of beautiful places to go to but I think it's something you should seriously consider but it's it's it's it's it's an individual choice I mean if you decide not to then you can just continue making feature-length films on your own did I say that was all because now I really feel it no I mean congratulations first of all I got to see your film so please make sure you connect with me after some is it Oh last year I got into the youth section we raised $10,000 from that to extend it into the future film but right now I'm just working on distribution I'm actually a maverick for a ray yeah well we need to see your film but the bottom line is individual choice the good thing is you know you know the other option a lot of folks think it just has to be film school there are other ways to do it but film school is also a beautiful thing it's a privilege if it's one that you can step into and take advantage of how incredible with that be so either way you're going to be fine and congratulations [Applause] should we wrap you Dean ah I'm looking for Eugene yeah I'm here I'm sorry we wrapper yes we should really wrap we should we all give Ava another round of applause there's one thing I just wanted to say if I could I just want to thank you all for coming out tonight to see me that that is a beautiful thing but more than anything I want to thank you for supporting Blackstar because these spaces are so critical to the black filmmaker you know we we we the studio's aren't taking our films and putting them into the theaters it becomes harder and harder to get our stories told we tell them for you and so it's just important that we show up not just with the festival continue to come the festival but to mic these stuff and and the and the real Black Series and all the films that and filmmakers that come in to Philly Philly really is kind of a black filmmaker mecca to a lot of us because we know we can come here and get a beautiful diverse inclusive audience like this that's passionate about our story so thank you appreciate it go see Wrinkle keep watching Queen sugar [Applause]

Channel: PhillyCAM

Views: 8,757

Rating: 4.9333334 out of 5

Keywords: independent film, philadelphia, selma, 13th, filmmaker, wrinkle in time

Id: 9Sbp1wNyhpI

Length: 51min 56sec (3116 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 25 2017