Tennis Champion Venus Williams once said, “If you have a chance to work with Ava (DuVernay), you do it right away. She’s opening doors, and that’s courageous.” DuVernay had made the 2013 ESPN documentary, Venus Vs, on Williams’ fight for equal prize money.
No wonder DuVernay has been one of the most in-demand celebrities—and warm and accessible to boot—among the young filmmakers thronging the 21st edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival where she participated in a conversation with the French producer, writer, actor and costume designer Rosalie Varda.
A publicist turned filmmaker, DuVernay started off by making documentaries. She hit the spotlight on becoming the first African-American woman to win the directing award in the US dramatic competition at the Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film Middle of Nowhere (2012). She went on to make the 2014 historical drama Selma, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar and won the Academy Award for Best Song.
Politically aware, socially conscious and outspoken, she took a dig on stage at the Marrakech conversation on Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the double standards of the US judicial system.
Whether she was aware of the support being provided to young Dalit film professionals and musicians by Tamil filmmaker Pa Ranjith, she was quick to admit her ignorance while being as agile in stating the need to form solidarities on such efforts and requesting for name of his organisations—Neelam Cultural Centre and The Casteless Collective.
In this conversation, she dwelled on a range of issues, including how she handled a complex topic like the caste system in her film Origin, the significance of streaming platforms like Netflix, and more
Excerpts:
On Origin and its connection with India. How did you go about researching the caste system which is an enormously complex reality positioned on prejudices, intolerance, and brutality?
I was naive about how passionate the denial is that the caste system exists in India. Some people would say it doesn’t exist. It’s the same kind of people who’d say there’s no racism in the United States. It’s been illuminating in that way. There has been no distribution for the film in India.
I think it has some important things to say and I also know that there were some Indian scholars who had issues with some of the things in the book that it is based on. That’s why I wanted to bring in Suraj Yengde, a leading scholar on the issue of caste, to expand on some of the ideas and just try to be as responsible as possible. I felt very uncomfortable telling the story of Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar. I thought it should be an Indian filmmaker telling that story, but I did my best.
In India, for a long time, the stories of the marginalized had been told by the privileged.
That’s why I didn’t feel like I was the right person to tell the story of Dr Ambedkar. That’s not my story. That is a Dalit story. It should be a Dalit filmmaker telling that story. But I was making a film about caste so it felt wrong to leave him out because he’s one of the foremost thinkers on the issue. But the challenge was, that there have been almost no international films about Dr Ambedkar. So, as an African American woman, I’m introducing him to people. It’s just like White filmmakers introducing Rosa Parks to people. I felt that way. It’s challenging. I do believe that people should tell their own stories. It doesn’t mean that other people can’t tell them, but they need to be involved as much as possible.
Talking of distribution, does the streaming world change the way that your films get watched?
I was an early supporter of Netflix. I’ve been criticized for this and I think it’s ridiculous. It doesn’t matter to me as much about the way in which the film is seen. I do not feel precious about it being seen in a theatre. As a woman filmmaker, as a Black filmmaker, as a Black woman filmmaker, the work being seen is the most important to me.
Streaming is the reason I had a full room at the public conversation here; because of my work on Netflix. Otherwise, my work would not reach 190 countries around the world. They talked about When They See Us, which is a series that I did about a crime that the government committed against five black and brown boys.
What makes you pick your stories?
I want to do a mystery, I want to do a romance. I want to do a thriller. I made A Wrinkle in Time. I did two television shows for DC Comics that were based on comic books. Most people know me for social justice, but I’ve done all kinds of things. One of my favourites is a show I made called Home Sweet Home where two families swap houses. So, one family has to eat the other family’s food, go to the other family’s mosque or church, walk the other family’s dog or iguana, whatever the other family does. The families are from different cultures but get to see that they’re more alike than different.
What is it like when you are writing a script?
I find it really difficult to write. I have a good friend named Ryan Coogler (Black Panther and Creed), and one day I called him up just to check in on him, and his voice was excited. He was writing in a coffee shop and his voice was like he was in heaven. But writing is just very difficult for me. I’m fortunate that I can do it, but my process is a very intricate one called procrastination. I will wait until it has to be done, and I will complain the whole way.
What are you working on next?
I’m going back to making a documentary. I’m exploring some things about American history that people should know. It’ll be out this time next year.
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