Quotes by Ava DuVernay

About Ava DuVernay:

Ava Marie DuVernay is an American director, screenwriter, film 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. With Selma, she is also the first black female director to have their film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I really admire Werner Herzog and Spike Lee. They're amazing documentarians. If you took away all the narratives, they'd just be amazing documentarians.

Ava DuVernay

All the traditional models for doing things are collapsing; from music to publishing to film, and it's a wide open door for people who are creative to do what they need to do without having institutions block their art.

Ava DuVernay

We're told that independent film lovers... folks that are used to watching art house films, won't come out and see a film with black people in it - I've been told that in rooms, big rooms, studio rooms, and I know that's not true.

Ava DuVernay

I've been to Sundance eight times as a publicist and thought I was very prepared. I mean, who could've been more prepared for me? A publicist who's been there eight times. Getting there as a filmmaker was a completely surreal, different, unexpected e...

Ava DuVernay

I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.

Ava DuVernay

When I'm marketing a film, whether its mine or someone else's, I work with a great deal of strategy and elbow grease until the job is done.

Ava DuVernay

I think I am a little jealous of women who have great girlfriends as adults.

Ava DuVernay

I think good publicists are just like good mommies - always looking out, making sure folks are comfortable and making sure that folks are on time and making sure that folks are getting what they need and know what they need to do.

Ava DuVernay

In documentaries, there's a truth that unfolds unnaturally, and you get to chronicle it. In narratives, you have to create the situations so that the truth will come out.

Ava DuVernay

I just don't think there's a lot of support for the woman's voice in cinema, and it becomes really difficult to raise that money and start again every time.

Ava DuVernay

I think that women definitely have a special bond as friends that is hard to describe to men, and we don't often see that portrayed narratively.

Ava DuVernay

All the films I do, I write the scripts, I direct.

Ava DuVernay

I didn't start out thinking that I could ever make films. I started out being a film lover, loving films, and wanting to have a job that put me close to them and close to filmmakers and close to film sets.

Ava DuVernay

I think that if we really want to break it down, that non-black filmmakers have had many, many years and many, many opportunities to tell many, many stories about themselves, and black filmmakers have not had as many years, as many opportunities, as ...

Ava DuVernay

If you're doing something outside of dominant culture, there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.

Ava DuVernay

I tell the stories that are of interest to me.

Ava DuVernay

I don't understand the iPhone. I just don't get it. Don't ya'll have to write serious emails throughout the day? How can you possibly manage detailed missives on a phone with no keys?

Ava DuVernay

I wish I could be the black woman Soderbergh, and put the camera on my shoulder and shoot beautifully while I directed.

Ava DuVernay

Film school was a privilege I could not afford.

Ava DuVernay

Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.

Ava DuVernay

Author Bio

  • NameAva DuVernay
  • DescriptionAmerican film director
  • BornAugust 24, 1972
  • CountryUnited States Of America
  • ProfessionFilm Director; Writer; Screenwriter