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It was easy for me to show the films to the studio and the network and say, This is who I'm hiring.

Ava DuVernay

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Ava DuVernay
Age: 52
Born: 1972
Born: August 24
Film Director
Film Producer
Filmmaker
Screenwriter
Showrunner
Television Producer
Writer
Long Beach
California
Ava Marie DuVernay
Shows
Film
Hiring
Network
Studio
Studios
Films
Show
Easy

More quotes by Ava DuVernay

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These are dark times for a lot of people who believe differently than our incoming administration [of Donald Trump], but there's also joy there, and there's also something in unifying around the things that we do believe in.
Ava DuVernay
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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
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Don't wait for permission to do something creative.
Ava DuVernay
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[ Hollywood] is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men.
Ava DuVernay
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I don't want to say that in a place that's negative about what the fear is. I just want to be a realist.
Ava DuVernay
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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
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When I went out to shoot for the first time, I thought this was going to be about the prison industrial complex, purely about prison for profit and the ways in which there's an industry making money and profiting off punishment.
Ava DuVernay
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We're living based on laws and ideas that we, as a society, embraced back in the days of slavery.
Ava DuVernay
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We [Americans] know Martin Luther King Jr. as a statue. We know him as a holiday. We know him as a speech. We don't know him as a man. Most people don't even know the whole speech, just I have a dream. They don't know what his speaking voice was like, how he looked at his wife, or that he had four kids.
Ava DuVernay
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Working full-time as a filmmaker has been a dream come true.
Ava DuVernay
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Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you're focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don't have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short... make my documentary... make my small films... use my own money... raise money myself... and stay shooting and focused on each project.
Ava DuVernay
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I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.
Ava DuVernay
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I think when we get to a place that this is not the story, that everyone's story is a part of the story, then we can say this has changed. Until then, these are steps to change if they're consistent.
Ava DuVernay
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Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.
Ava DuVernay
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True change is a long game, and it remains to be seen if this is change. We've had years before where there have been great years for filmmakers and performers of color, LGBTQ filmmakers and performers, women.
Ava DuVernay
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Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.
Ava DuVernay
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We have to find new ways to work without permission, new ways to turn corners and go through doors that are closed off to us to create our own audiences and our own material independently.
Ava DuVernay
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I'm not the most athletic gal, but because making a movie is very physical, I slow down on the Krispy Kreme and Ice Blendeds. I start to get leaner and more focused - like I'm going into a boxing match - because I'm about to really try to put this idea on its feet.
Ava DuVernay
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I wish I could be the black woman Soderbergh, and put the camera on my shoulder and shoot beautifully while I directed.
Ava DuVernay
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I know that sounds a little bit corny, but I've found some solace in that. I hope art can continue to do that for people, I really do.
Ava DuVernay