WORK FRIENDS
Ava DuVernay
Filmmaker
In the story of acclaimed director and storyteller Ava DuVernay’s career, there have been several inspiring chapters before the one that catapulted her work and name onto a global stage. A former publicist with her own firm, DuVernay was previously the PR powerhouse behind films until she decided to pick up a camera herself at the age of 32. As she explains, there wasn’t an abrupt career change, but rather a slow, baby-stepped approach to following her curiosity and passion for bringing stories to the screen that she had not yet seen.
Today, DuVernay’s films are not only certifiable box office hits, but they also resonate profoundly on personal and societal levels. In 2023’s Origin, she explored themes of grief and caste; in 13th, an examination of the prison industrial complex; and in Selma, she portrayed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. That project also marked DuVernay becoming the first Black woman to direct a film nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. Further “firsts” would follow as she went on to become the first Black woman to direct a film with a budget of $100 million, with Disney’s A Wrinkle in Time.
Still, despite the mainstream accolades, DuVernay has carved out her own physical space in Hollywood, where she’s been bringing her ideas to life since 2011: ARRAY. This artist's collective is where she creates film, offers education, and fosters community, without ever being held to the status quo or industry decision-makers whose values and perspectives don’t align with her own. “If they ever decide that they're done with you, where do you go?” she says of her “liberated territory” in Los Angeles—borrowing a term from her mentor, filmmaker Haile Gerima. “I go to ARRAY.”
“There's no win or lose; there's only win or learn.”
ON THE DESIRE TO DIRECT
Being on set with directors—including Mr. [Steven] Spielberg—as a publicist for different movies, I was able to see the orchestration of multiple departments, the coordination of people who do different things in distinct departments, working in harmony. All of the different people on the scroll of a movie, that you see when you finish watching a film, do a very specific thing and are working towards one end goal. Seeing it in person, from directors like Gurinder Chadha, Raoul Peck, Michael Mann, and Spielberg, helped me understand directing more fully.
I had been a crew member, one of the instruments of the orchestra that all moved around the conductor…but there were stories that I wanted to tell that I did not see in the marketplace at that time. Stories about the interiority of Black women and stories about the history of Black people that I wanted to address in certain ways. And so, [wanting to direct] was really my desire to tell stories, to remedy an absence.
ON STEP-BY-STEP TRANSITIONS
Decisions about career, as in life, don't have to be made in full at any point. There can be a direction that you want to go in that you pursue step by step. Decision-making is really a fluid process that's cumulative. It takes into account all that you are, that you've experienced, that you want. And so yes, there's a day when all the things add up, and you might be able to declare it, but everything you've done has led you to that point.
There wasn't a declaration of “I will be a filmmaker tomorrow.” It was, “I want to see how the cameras work. Maybe I can make a small documentary. Oh gosh, I made those two things with my own money; maybe someone will pay me to make one. Let me take a class on directing actors. Let me read that book. Let me go to that workshop. Let me talk to these people. Let me shadow this person.” It wasn't a full decision [to pivot my career to filmmaking]. It was an exploration and experience, and that's how I really invite people to think about career transitions.
ON THE GIFTS OF BEING A PUBLICIST
Being a publicist gave me a real sense of organization, knowledge on how to run a business, and, of course, learning how to think on my feet. But it gave me two gifts beyond that. One of them is juggling. When you're a PR firm, you are managing multiple campaigns at different stages of the campaign’s life cycle…That really helped me gain advanced multitasking skills that are really necessary in directing.
The other gift was the knowledge that anything can be shared and embraced. Don’t allow anyone—a producer, a studio, any financier—to say, “No one's going to want to see that”. Because, if pitched correctly, if offered correctly—while it may not be a worldwide blockbuster—[a story] can still appeal to a group of individuals who want to see what you want to see. None of us is so rare that we love a thing that no one else loves. When I wanted to make a film about a Black woman who was going through the grieving process, a studio would say, “Nobody wants to see that,” but I know that's not true. And that continued to be the case all the way through developing the movie Origin. I believe that once it's seen, it will be instructive to people, either in what they agree with or in what they disagree with. But it's worth making.
ON CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT OF YES
I try to abide by the fact that there's no win or lose; there's only win or learn. So, I try not to subscribe to the idea that failures or nos are a setback. I'm sure I've heard them, I just probably haven't metabolized them as a no.
ON CREATING “LIBERATED TERRITORY”
ARRAY is my liberated territory within Hollywood. When I had a few extra dollars, I followed the blueprints of Oprah Winfrey with Harpo Productions, Haile Gerima with Sankofa Bookstore, and J.J. Abrams with Bad Robot.
It is where we do all the work that matters to us: making films, distributing films for other people, educating people through film, and convening people around ideas that can create community.
ON CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO
The status quo doesn't look like me or think like me. In order to stay here and to make the films and say the things I want to say, I had to create my own distribution company. In order to stay here and make the films in the way I wanted to make them, I had to change the way the crew looked and make sure it had women, people of color, and Black folk. So the things I have to do to stay here might seem like status quo busting, but underneath, it's just an attempt to maintain a presence. People say, ”What's next?” I don’t want a bigger building. I don't want more people on the team. I just want consistency. I want to be here. So, that’s what I focus on.
ON ADVICE FOR STORYTELLERS
Enjoy every step. Out of all the things that I have done with film festivals—I've been on the jury of Cannes, I've won Sundance, I've premiered in Toronto, I've opened at the New York Film Festival—my number one is, and always will be, my experience at the Palm Springs Short Film Festival. I took off early on a Friday from work, and I had my little film on DVD, the first thing I'd ever made. I packed a bag, drove down, stayed in the cheap motel, got my filmmaker badge, and watched my film for the first time being played in front of people. The first time that it ever happened. I didn’t know it would happen thousands of times since. But that first feeling was the most euphoric.
So, I would tell people who are getting started that those early days are so beautiful. Don't speed through them, and don't think they don't matter because you're in the good stuff. The steps are the whole thing. Really embrace this time. Stay in the cheap hotel, enjoy getting into the small film festival that nobody cares about, all that stuff. Experience it, fully feel it, and enjoy the ride.
“The status quo doesn't look like me or think like me.”
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