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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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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
Money
Complex
Thought
Punishment
Firsts
Profit
First
Prison
Profiting
Going
Industry
Purely
Way
Went
Industrial
Time
Ways
Shoot
Making
Complexes

More quotes by Ava DuVernay

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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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When you force sleep, it doesn't happen.
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Historically, you've had really muddy, unforgiving, unintentional images of black people.
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Folks can look at this issue and read it and it can feel like medicine, it can feel epidemic. We wanted this to hit people in their gut, and the hope is that by doing that, we can get more people to think more deeply about these issues.
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I make films about Black women and it doesn't mean that you can't see them as a Black man, doesn't mean that he can't see them as a white man or she can't see them as a white woman.
Ava DuVernay
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I just remember not having access to films as a young person who loved films but living in Compton.
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Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.
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.
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I tell the stories that are of interest to me.
Ava DuVernay
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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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Don't wait for permission to do something creative.
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When you say cultural icon, I scrunch my nose.
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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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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The traditional ways to make a film, the traditional ways to share a film, have all collapsed. There are no gatekeepers, per se, any more, and anything can be done. Truly, I feel that.
Ava DuVernay
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Working full-time as a filmmaker has been a dream come true.
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.
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Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through. Studios no longer do this for a large percentage of films. The odds that your film will get a major campaign are dim these days. So you must find and nurture your own audience and make sure your film has a life.
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I know that there are a lot of great women that have gone before me, so it's important to acknowledge them.
Ava DuVernay
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If you have the ability to do something, you should do it.
Ava DuVernay