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.
I think it's our responsibility as artists to not only fight for our art but fight for the communities that are the reason we're able to continue making art, especially since, in Brooklyn's case, we as artists somehow made it 'cool' enough for the bigger money-making industries to start taking over.
If you dont [sic] say what you want, what's the sense of writing?
I've always tried to make movies that pull the audience out of their seats... I want audiences to be transported.
An essential portion of any artist’s labor is not creation so much as invocation. Part of the work cannot be made, it must be received; and we cannot have this gift except, perhaps, by supplication, by courting, by creating within ourselves that ‘begging bowl’ to which the gift is drawn.
Describing Starry Night: Firmament and planets both disappeared, but the mighty breath which gives life to all things and in which all is bound up remained.
The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.
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