There's a belonging problem in Hollywood. Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.
Ava DuvernayRead
I intend to be making films until I'm an old lady. So, if God willing I get there, I need to create a paradigm for myself where I can make it regardless of whether or not they still like what I'm making.
Interpretation
Ava Duvernay expresses her commitment to filmmaking regardless of external validation.
In this quote, Ava Duvernay emphasizes the importance of persisting in one's passion for filmmaking without being swayed by public opinion. She indicates that her creative journey is driven by personal conviction and purpose, and she wishes to create a sustainable framework that allows her to continue making films throughout her life, regardless of changing tastes or trends.
In practice
During a filmmaking workshop to inspire budding directors.
There's a belonging problem in Hollywood. Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.
I just don't think there's a lot of support for the woman's voice in cinema, and it becomes really difficult to raise that money and start again every time.
I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.
I think for female filmmakers a big issue is making their second and third films.
When we say there's a dearth of women directors, it's not that there's a lack of women who direct: it's a lack of opportunities and access for women to direct and be supported in that.
I think that if we really want to break it down, that non-black filmmakers have had many, many years and many, many opportunities to tell many, many stories about themselves, and black filmmakers have not had as many years, as many opportunities, as many films to explore the nuances of our reality.
As film makers or any artiste that put work out there, what you are doing on your level is that you are putting consciousness out into the world.
And it was always the stories that needed the telling that gave us the rope we could cross any river with. They balanced us high above any crevasse. They made us be natural acrobats. They made us brave. They met us well. They changed us. It was in their nature to.
The best music, you can seek some shelter in it momentarily, but it's essentially there to provide you something to face the world with.
Why shouldn't rap be esoteric, able to take in current events, history and criticism? I guess it's this old idea of containment - that rappers, because they're black, can't and shouldn't aspire to look outside the ghetto for influence.
There is a lot of propaganda about opera singers not being able to act. That's not necessarily true and hasn't been true for a very long time. And certainly there were those instances when singers were told they need to fit into a certain size dress. Of course, women. Men? They just make the costume bigger.
The art and science of memory is about developing the capacity to quickly create images that link disparate ideas. Creativity is the ability to form similar connections between disparate images and to create something new and hurl it into the future so it becomes a poem, or a building, or a dance, or a novel. Creativity is, in a sense, future memory.
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