Ava DuVernay Says Black U.S. Directors Are Told “Not to Apply” to International Film Festivals, but ‘Origin’ Has “Opened the Door”

Alex Ritman and Patrick Brzeski
·3 min read
50

Ava DuVernay has made history at the Venice Film Festival, becoming the first female Black U.S. director in the event’s 80 years to have a film in the main competition. DuVernay addressed this milestone head-on at the press conference for Origin, which will have world premiere Wednesday night, explaining that Black U.S. filmmakers are led to believe that international film festivals are simply not places for their work.

“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films,” she said. “This is something that we are often told — ‘You cannot play international film festivals, no one will come, people will not come to your press conference, people will not come to the P&I screenings, they will not be interested in selling tickets, you may not even get into this festival, so don’t apply.’ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told not to apply to Venice, you won’t get in. It won’t happen. And this year, it happened.”

More from The Hollywood Reporter

In Venice choosing the first African American woman in its eight decades, she said that Origin had “opened the door, and I trust and hope that the festival will keep it open.”

When asked by a journalist in Venice about the details of crafting Origin, DuVernay said she really appreciated the question, because “so often, as a Black woman filmmaker, the questions that I’m asked are about race or about being a woman, or about being everything but the filmmaking part.”

Origin is inspired by the remarkable life and work of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson — played by Oscar nominee Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard) — as she pens her seminal book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents. While grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, Wilkerson sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery. Despite the colossal scope of her project, she finds beauty and bravery while crafting one of the defining American nonfiction books of recent years.

DuVernay said, in talking with Wilkerson, the author had “shared with me that the seed of the idea for the book began with the murder of Trayvon Martin.” This shaped her decision on how to bookend the film.

She added: “I am very affected by the murder of Trayvon Martin, so that became a point of commonality — to be so emotionally connected to his death. It was my choice and my honor to open the film on his face and to close the film on his face.”

Co-starring in the film are Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Connie Nielsen.

Paul Garnes and DuVernay produced Origin under her Array Filmworks banner. In addition to DuVernay and Garnes, the team of artists behind Origin is led by cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd, ASC, production designer Ina Mayhew, editor Spencer Averick A.C.E, composer Kris Bowers, costume designer Dominique Dawson and casting director Aisha Coley.

The film was acquired by Neon for worldwide distribution on the day before its Venice premiere after a negotiation process that was described as “competitive.”

Best of The Hollywood Reporter

Click here to read the full article.