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A lot of work was done with one of my best friends and editor, Spencer Averick, who's edited everything I've ever made from the very, very first documentaries the very, very first films I made were docs, so we learned the form together.

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
Everything
Learned
First
Friends
Docs
Done
Film
Spencer
Work
Form
Edited
Made
Together
Editor
Best
Documentaries
Ever
Editors
Firsts
Films

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Netflix represents, as well as all the streaming services, something that I've been talking about being so important to inclusive voices around films.
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It sounds kind of flighty, filmmaker-y, but I believe films are a piece of art. They are meant to be what they're meant to be, and sometimes the artist is informed by the film of what it needs to be.
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When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.
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The fact that's why the prisons and stock in private prisons rose the very day after the election results [for Donald Trump] were announced. The fact that progress that was made for people of color, for women, for LGBTQ people, are all at risk.
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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.
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Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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I think I am a little jealous of women who have great girlfriends as adults.
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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.
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I'm a huge Dirty Dancing fan. I feel like I should be reading [William] Shakespeare, but I'm watching Baby not be in a corner.
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If you have the ability to do something, you should do it.
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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.
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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.
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Working full-time as a filmmaker has been a dream come true.
Ava DuVernay
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I was talking to Shonda Rhimes the other day and I said, I. Do. Not. Know. How. You. Do. This. While we're writing episode 10, episode 6 is shooting, episode 3 is in the edit, and episode 2 is in its color session...You've got seven episodes in different parts! It's a wild, wild, wild ride, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was badass and amazing
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There's no reason not to employ, seek out and take a chance on a woman filmmaker that you might not have been looking at her direction. She's not done it before because you've not given her the opportunity to do it before, and I'm just happy that folks like Jessica Jones' Melissa Rosenberg and folks like Ryan Murphy are also embracing this idea.
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[ Hollywood] is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men.
Ava DuVernay