Quote

I know that there are a lot of great women that have gone before me, so it's important to acknowledge them.

Ava DuVernay

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

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
Important
Great
Acknowledge
Gone
Women

More quotes by Ava DuVernay

Image
I just remember not having access to films as a young person who loved films but living in Compton.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
To pretend like Hollywood is anything other than that is disingenuous. #OscarsSoWhite is trendy, but for women filmmakers and filmmakers of color, it's not a trend. This is our reality, and it's important that we do something to change it.
Ava DuVernay
Image
As long as you're in an environment where the worth of the project isn't based on the project but what its predecessors did, it's not truly inclusive.
Ava DuVernay
Image
Historically, you've had really muddy, unforgiving, unintentional images of black people.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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.
Ava DuVernay
Image
Filmmakers need to realize that their job isn't done when they lock picture. We must see our films through.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
For film, you know, the Tarantinos and Nolans of the world who are very focused on a certain kind of film aesthetic and a certain kind of presentation, to be honest, that comes from a place of privilege. It comes from a place of always having access to such, but when you ain't never - you can't see it because you can't even get to it.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
[ Hollywood] is a patriarchy, headed by men and built for men.
Ava DuVernay
Image
When you force sleep, it doesn't happen.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
Don't wait for permission to do something creative.
Ava DuVernay
Image
I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
Netflix represents, as well as all the streaming services, something that I've been talking about being so important to inclusive voices around films.
Ava DuVernay
Image
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
Image
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