You know her name, you know her work, her filmography; but what you may not know is the mark she has made on
Black History.
Did you know she is the first African American woman to win Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival, for her movie Middle of Nowhere. For Selma, she became the first Black woman to be nominated for a Best Director Golden Globe, and the first Black woman to have a film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. Her Oscar 1st do not stop there, for she was the first Black woman nominated for an academy award for Best Documentary Feature for her film 13TH. While A Wrinkle in Time, made her the first Black Woman to direct a film over $100 million dollars. With When They See Us, nominated for 16 Emmy awards, making her one of only two Black women in the history of the Emmy's to receive multiple nominations for directing.
Continuing on her journey of 1st in Black History, her latest project, "Origin", co-written by DuVernay and Isabel Wilkerson, based on Wilkerson's best selling book
"Caste: The Origins of our Discontent", was so impactful at it's showing at the Venice Film Festival that it received a nine-minute standing ovation. How significant is this, well, it's a first time a Black American Woman has had a film "compete" for the Golden Lion, the grand prize of the Venice Film Festival, in festival's 80 YEAR EXISTENCE.
DuVernay's contributions are Oh So Worth a View, because her portrayals of blacks and minorities in a society that does not "see" us, her filmography truly reflects the black and minority experience on a day-to-day basis. Rather it's in a time of fighting for equal rights and to be treated as human, as with Selma, and it's depiction of "Bloody Sunday" which portrays the horrific violence by state and local lawmen against peaceful protestors simply marching from Selma to Montgomery, for their rights. Or fighting for your life in a society that punishes you without proof because justice is not the point, When They See Us, DuVernay's Netflix series is a chilling, and as the mother of two black men and three black grandsons, a scary story of just how swift the racism in this country, supersedes the truth on any given day and when that racism is yielded in the form of a badge, all to often, the lives of minorities, especially men, are left irreversibly scared, reduced and in all to many cases, their lives are taken.
At the time of writing this post, Origin, her latest film, had a limited theatrical release by Neon on December 8, 2023, in Los Angeles and New York and is set to expand to a wide release on January 19, 2024, which I will most definitely will be seeing. Bringing modern day and societal racism to the forefront of today's society through a personal journey and the perspective of a "Caste" system, I truly believe Duvernay as the writer and director, is the perfect person to tell this story.
Oh So Worth a View in Black History, Ava DuVernay.
To learn more about Ava DuVernay and why she is Oh So Worth a View in Black History, please view the sites below to learn about her production company, and some of the films, documentaries and series in her body of work.
Array, Production Company
Multi-platform arts and social impact collective dedicated to narrative change.
https://arraynow.com/
https://www.instagram.com/arraynow
I Will Follow
Middle of Nowhere
Selma
A Wrinkle in Time
Origin
This is the Life
13TH
Queen Sugar
When They See Us
