Ava DuVernay Launches Crucial New Database to Diversify Film & TV Crews
When is Ava DuVernay not pushing the entertainment industry to become more inclusive? The answer is never. The powerhouse director/producer is launching a new venture in collaboration with major studios, streaming platforms, and producers to help diversify film and TV crew members. The new database tool, called ARRAY CREW, launches today and is part of DuVernay’s nonprofit organization ARRAY Alliance. The tool is aimed to help bridge a gap that has long stymied talented filmmakers—how to get their names in front of producers and production companies when they don’t already have established relationships with the insular entertainment community.
Ava DuVernay Assembles All-Star Film Talent For Thursday’s Array Film Fellowship Tweet-A-Thon
The details of director Ava DuVernay’s fourth Array Film Fellowship tweet-a-thon are here, and they speak to an epic event. The talented DuVernay, who takes it as her mission to elevate the entertainment industry as well as make her own, must-see films and series, has conjured an A-list cast of film talent to aid her in her online, wide-ranging event. Wonder Woman 1984 director Patty Jenkins, Oscar-winner and all-around legend Guillermo del Toro,
Ava DuVernay to Direct Adaptation of The New Gods
Ava DuVernay is one of our favorite filmmakers, so the news that she’ll be tackling a big-budget screen adaptation of legendary comic book visionary Jack Kirby’s The New Gods is incredibly exciting. It marks the second potentially massive comic book franchise that Warner Bros. and DC have entrusted to a female director (more of this, please) after Patty Jenkins turned Wonder Woman into a critical and box office smash. Deadline reports that the auteur,
Ava DuVernay is Adapting Octavia Butler’s 1987 Sci-Fi Classic “Dawn”
Ava DuVernay is having one of the more impressive multi-year runs of any director in recent memory. After her brilliant, Oscar-nominated 2014 film Selma astonished critics and audiences alike, DuVernay has managed to direct, write and produce another Oscar-nominated film, the remarkable, crucially important documentary 13th, direct the adaptation of the iconic book A Wrinkle in Time for Disney, and write, direct and executive produce the TV series Queen Sugar.
Rihanna & Lupita Nyong’o Buddy Comedy Coming to Netflix With Ava DuVernay Directing
We were just writing about the widespread glee at the news that Tom Hardy was cast as Venom in Sony’s upcoming film, and now we have another instance of widespread joy at casting news. This time, it’s over the news that Netflix is bringing Rihanna, Lupita Nyong’o, Issa Rae and Ava DuVernay together for a buddy comedy. Written by Rae, creator and star of HBO’s Insecure, and directed by DuVernay,
Watch the Trailer for Ava DuVernay’s Powerful Doc The 13th
Ever since 2014’s Selma cemented Ava DuVernay as one of our most ambitious and intelligent young filmmakers, she’s been quietly hard at work on several projects. Her drama from Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network, Queen Sugar, has been met with major praise. Based on Natalie Baszile’s novel and focuses on the three estrange Bordelon Siblings and their very different lives. At the center of the family are the jouranlist and activist Nova (Rutina Wesley);
SXSW 2015: Selma Director Ava DuVernay’s Moving Keynote Address
In her South by Southwest keynote address, director Ava DuVernay discussed taking on one of the greatest challenges for any filmmaker; the depiction of a historical event. For DuVernay, of course, it was the challenge of making Selma, the story of Martin Luther King Jr. leading the historic, dangerous march from Selma, Ala., to Montgomery in support of African American voting rights in 1965. She accepted the project knowing she was the seventh choice for director (at various points Stephen Frears,
