Ava DuVernay Biography

Ava Marie DuVernay (born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, marketer and film distributor. At the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, DuVernay won the Best Director Prize for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first African-American woman to win the award. For her work in Selma, Duvernay is the first black female director to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Early life

DuVernay was born in Los Angeles, California. Her mother, born and raised in Compton, was a human resources executive at a hospital and later became a preschool director. DuVernay's mother married DuVernay's biological father when she was 16 before divorcing him; she later remarried. DuVernay has said that her biological father was emotionally abusive towards her mother. DuVernay and her two sisters were raised by her mother and stepfather, Murray, who grew up in Hayneville, Alabama, and owns a carpet and flooring company.

She grew up in Lynwood, California and Compton, California. DuVernay also spent summers in Hayneville, Alabama, the small town between Montgomery and Selma, where her step-father was from. Her summers in Alabama influenced the making of Selma. Her aunt, Denise Sexton, was a registered nurse and a community theater actress who introduced DuVernay to movies.

As a member of the hip hop duo Figures of Speech, DuVernay was active at the Good Life Cafe open mic night in the early 90s. In 2007, Figures of Speech released their only album, The Last Word. DuVernay later directed a documentary about the Good Life open mic nights titled This Is the Life.

DuVernay attended Saint Joseph High School, where she graduated in 1990. She graduated with a B.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1995, where she double-majored in English and African American studies.

Career

While in college DuVernay became interested in producing for broadcast journalism. She was an intern for CBS News and worked on the national evening news with Connie Chung and Dan Rather during the O.J. Simpson murder trial. She became disillusioned with journalism, and decided to switch to publicity.

Public relations

After graduation, she worked for a small studio as a junior publicist. DuVernay worked at FOX, Savoy Pictures and other public relations firms for four years before forming her own agency, The DuVernay Agency, later known as DVA Media + Marketing, in 1999. The award-winning marketing and publicity firm has provided strategy and execution for more than 100 film and television projects by directors such as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann, Robert Rodriguez, Kevin Smith, Bill Condon, Raoul Peck and Gurinder Chadha.

Filmmaking

In 2008, DuVernay made her feature directorial debut with the documentary This Is the Life, a history of LA's Good Life Cafe's arts movement. DuVernay said that while she was trying to raise money for a feature length film, "documentaries were something that I could do for a small amount of money, and then I felt like as long as I found the truth in the stories I was telling as a doc, I could teach myself filmmaking through doc filmmaking."

In 2011, DuVernay's first narrative feature film, I Will Follow, a drama starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield, was released theatrically. DuVernay's aunt Denise Sexton was the inspiration for the film. "Like the characters in the film, DuVernay and her aunt moved to a house on the beach when Sexton was diagnosed with cancer. DuVernay spent two years taking care of her aunt and making her final months as happy as possible." DuVernay made the film in 15 days with her own money: DuVernay "kept costs under $50,000 by staying in one location." Roger Ebert championed the film, stating: "I Will Follow is one of the best films I've seen about coming to terms with the death of a loved one." I Will Follow was an official selection of AFI Fest, Pan-African Film Festival, Urbanworld and Chicago International Film Festival.

In the summer of 2011, DuVernay began production on her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere. The film was acquired by AFFRM and Participant Media at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, where it played in U.S. Dramatic Competition and garnered the Best Director Award for DuVernay, the first African-American woman to ever win the prize. DuVernay also won the Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award for her work on the film.

ESPN commissioned DuVernay to produce and direct Venus Vs., a documentary on Venus Williams' fight for equal prize money for their film series Nine for IX, which aired July 2, 2013.

DuVernay directed and co-wrote Selma, a film produced by Plan B Entertainment, about Martin Luther King Jr., Lyndon Johnson, and the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march. The movie was released on December 25, 2014. There was significant controversy about Selma and its depiction of Lyndon Johnson's actions portrayed in the film. Former Johnson domestic policy aide Joseph A. Califano, Jr. criticized DuVernay for ignoring history, and particularly for suggesting that Johnson set the FBI to investigate King.

In December 2014, at a Q&A moderated by Gay Talese, DuVernay defended her vision, saying "I think everyone sees history through their own lens, and I don't begrudge anyone from wanting to see what they want to see. This is what I see. This is what we see. And that should be valid. I'm not gonna argue history; I could, but I won't." DuVernay expressed frustration at the controversy: "And for this to be reduced "? reduced is really what all of this is "? to one talking point of a small contingent of people who don't like one thing, is unfortunate, because this film is a celebration of people, a celebration of people who gathered to lift their voices "? black, white, otherwise, all classes, nationalities, faiths "? to do something amazing."

Television

DuVernay directed episode 3.08 of Scandal which was called "Vermont is for Lovers Too".

Other work

• In 2010, DuVernay directed several network music documentaries, including My Mic Sounds Nice for BET Networks and the Essence Music Festival 2010 for TV One.
• In 2013, DuVernay partnered with Miu Miu as part of their ad campaign Women's Tales. Her short film The Door starred actress Gabrielle Union and reunited DuVernay with her Middle of Nowhere star Emayatzy Corinealdi. The film was later presented at the 70th Venice International Film Festival.
• In August 2013, DuVernay released a second short film through Vimeo entitled Say Yes. The film was sponsored by cosmetic brand Fashion Fair and starred Kali Hawk and Lance Gross. Julie Dash, Victoria Mahoney, Lorraine Toussaint and Issa Rae appeared as extras in the film.

Future projects

In 2013, she announced development on a narrative feature film entitled Part of the Sky set in Compton.

Film distribution

On January 7, 2011, an article entitled "Building An Alliance To Aid Films By Blacks" by Michael Cieply was published in The New York Times about DuVernay's effort to organize African-American film festivals and orchestrate theatrical releases for black independent films. The African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM) and has released the following films:

• March 2011: DuVernay's I Will Follow
  • Grossed a per-screen-average of $11,563, and expanded from five screens in five cities to 22 screens in 15 cities after its first weekend
• December 2011: Kinyarwanda
  • 2011 Sundance Audience Award-winner
• April 2012: 'Restless City by Andrew Dosunmu
  • 2011 Sundance Film Festival Official Selection
• October 2012: DuVernay's Middle of Nowhere
  • Winner of the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for Best Director
• 2013: Storm Saulter's Better Mus' Come and Neil Drumming's Big Words
• 2014: BP Oil Spill documentary Vanishing Pearls by Nailah Jefferson

Influences, journey, artistic viewpoint

DuVernay has cited Haile Gerima, Julie Dash and Charles Burnett as her influences as a filmmaker.

On how she became a filmmaker: "I was a film publicist, so I represented a lot of filmmakers and I was always around them. I [started thinking] 'They're just regular people, like me, with ideas. I've got ideas.' That's literally how it started. It was definitely a career change; I didn't make my first little short until I was 32. It was kind of intimidating coming in to it so late"?all these whippersnappers fresh out of film school, I couldn't do any of that. But I did start to recognize that being so close to really great filmmakers and watching them direct on set and the experiences that I did have, although different from film school, were still super valuable. I learned just from being around. I coupled that with some very intentional study and practice"?picking up a camera"?and started just making it."

On discussing being a black filmmaker: "Some black filmmakers will say, 'I don't want to be considered a black filmmaker, I'm a filmmaker.' I don't think that. I'm a black woman filmmaker. Just like A Separation is [by] an Iranian, male filmmaker and his film is through that lens, my films are through my lens, and I think it's valuable and fine and worthy to be seen by everyone. So I don't have any problem with this. I like talking about all the amazing black independent filmmakers that are on the scene"?there are a good number that are doing great work. And I love talking about the issues that we deal with as women filmmakers, 'cause there's so many"?the drastic drop from a woman making her second film to her third film, it drops by, like, 50 percent. Women filmmakers, after the second [film], half of them disappear. That really startled me. That's something that we have to be mindful of as women critics and journalists and actors and directors. So, yeah, I think it's worth talking about."

On Roger Ebert: When she was 8 or 9 her aunt brought her to rehearsals for the Oscars where she saw Ebert, who came over to her while she was screaming, "thumbs up, thumbs up." She got a picture with Ebert that day. DuVernay said that "Ebert's review [of I Will Follow] really got to the heart of what I was trying to articulate. It touched me so much I sent him a picture from the Oscars." Ebert wrote a blog post in tribute to his aunt and DuVernay's aunt.

Personal life

DuVernay resides in Los Angeles, California. She is an honorary member of Alpha Kappa Alpha.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2014	Selma	Director	African American Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Black Film Critics Award for Best Director Black Reel Award for Best Director Nominated - Independent Spirit Award for Best Director Nominated - Satellite Award for Best Director Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Director Nominated - Gotham Award for Best Feature Film Nominated - Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Director Nominated - NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Director Nominated - Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Director Nominated - Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Director
2013	Scandal	Director	Television Episode
2013	Say Yes for Fashion Fair	Director/Writer	Branded Short
2013	Venus Vs.	Director/Writer	Television Documentary
2013	The Door for Prada	Director/Writer	Branded Short
2012	Middle of Nowhere	Director/Writer	Won - U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic 2012 Sundance Film Festival
2011	I Will Follow	Director/Writer	Narrative Feature Film
2010	My Mic Sounds Nice	Director/Executive Producer	Television Documentary
2010	Essence Music Festival '10	Director/Writer	Television Documentary
2010	Faith Through the Storm	Director/Writer	Television Documentary
2008	This Is the Life	Director/Producer	Feature Documentary
2007	Compton in C Minor	Director/Producer	Short Documentary
2006	Saturday Night Life	Director/Writer	Narrative Short

Awards, nominations, honors

• In June 2013, she was invited to both the director's and writer's branches of AMPAS. DuVernay was only the second black woman, following Kasi Lemmons, to be invited to the director's branch.
• Duvernay became the inaugural recipient of the Tribeca Film Institute's Heineken Affinity Award, receiving a $20,000 prize and industry support for future projects. DuVernay donated all the money to the black arthouse film collective known as AFFRM.

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result
2011	African-American Film Critics	Best Screenplay	I Will Follow
2012	Black Reel Awards	Best Screenplay
		Best Director
	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Independent Motion Picture
	Sundance Film Festival	Directing Award	Middle of Nowhere
		Grand Jury Prize
	Film Independent Spirit Awards	Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award
	Humanitas Prize	Sundance Film
	African-American Film Critics	Best Independent Film
		Best Screenplay
		Best Picture
	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Woman Screenwriter
	Women Film Critics Circle	Josephine Baker Award
2013	Black Reel Awards	Best Director
		Best Screenplay
		Best Film
	Gotham Awards	Best Feature
2014	Online Film Critics Society Award	Best Director	Selma
	Black Film Critics Circle	Best Director
	Central Ohio Film Critics Association	Best Director
		Breakthrough Film Artist
	Georgia Film Critics Association	Best Director
		Breakthrough Award
	Golden Globe Award	Best Director
	Alliance of Women Film Journalists	Best Director
		Best Woman Director
		Female Icon of the Year
	Film Independent Spirit Awards	Best Director
	Critics' Choice Movie Awards	Best Director
	Satellite Awards	Best Director