There's a belonging problem in Hollywood. Who dictates who belongs? The very body who dictates that looks all one way.
Ava DuvernayRead
In Hollywood, there is one dominant voice. It is a white, male, straight gaze. When I talk about positive portrayals of black people and women, I'm saying complexity. I'm not saying goody-two-shoes, everything's okay. No. The positive view of me is to see me as I am: the 'good,' the 'bad,' the gray. That is a positive portrayal.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Ava Duvernay emphasizes the importance of complex and genuine portrayals of marginalized groups in media.
In this quote, Ava Duvernay critiques the oversimplified and often stereotypical representation of black individuals and women in Hollywood, advocating for a more nuanced and realistic depiction of their identities. She argues that a truly positive portrayal acknowledges the full spectrum of humanity, including both strengths and flaws, rather than conforming to sanitized expectations that do not reflect reality.
Themes
RepresentationComplexityPortrayalDiversityInclusion
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a panel discussion about representation in media.
More from Ava Duvernay
All quotes →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.
Ava DuvernayRead
I didn't go to film school. I got my education on the set as a niche publicist in the film industry.
Ava DuvernayRead
I think for female filmmakers a big issue is making their second and third films.
Ava DuvernayRead
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.
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.
Ava DuvernayRead
Similar quotes
Lying, the telling of beautiful untrue things, is the proper aim of Art.
Oscar WildeRead
I saw Quentin Tarantino's 'Django Unchained,' and you could say a lot of things against it, but it was incredible fun. I don't like blood and gore and I am very squeamish about violence, but Tarantino's violence is actually funny.
Salman RushdieRead
I don't want you to write about what you know, because you don't know anything. I don't want to hear about your boyfriend or your grandma... I'm getting a little tired of 'my life story as fiction'. Please don't tell me about your little life - is there nothing larger? More important?
Toni MorrisonRead
I experience a period of frightening clarity in those moments when nature is so beautiful. I am no longer sure of myself, and the paintings appear as in a dream.
Vincent Van GoghRead
Yes sir. You can be more careless, you can put more trash in [a novel] and be excused for it. In a short story that's next to the poem, almost every word has got to be almost exactly right. In the novel you can be careless but in the short story you can't. I mean by that the good short stories like Chekhov wrote. That's why I rate that second - it's because it demands a nearer absolute exactitude. You have less room to be slovenly and careless. There's less room in it for trash.
William FaulknerRead
Designers don't live in a vacuum; they are not blind to what's going on. They, too, will be inspired by what they see, and that will come out in their work.
Anna WintourRead