Ava DuVernay took the spotlight in the British capital on Monday, appearing on stage for a Screen Talk during the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), which runs through Oct. 18, to discuss her career, her latest documentary, 14th, and the state of Hollywood. The filmmaker was showered with love and adoration by appreciative fans.
Asked how producers could finance films like hers, she shared that crowdfunding is a key opportunity to explore. “You put your movie up there, and there are all kinds of apps and sites that allow people who are like-minded to do it,” DuVernay said. “But [it’s about] also just asking people, getting 20 people investing $5,000 — a nice amount of money to say something or make something. And there are ways to get that money back, whether it’s through taking the film around to different film festivals or YouTubing it or selling it. This is what we’re going back to.”
DuVernay then highlighted how alternative ways of financing independent and other films will become more important. “Hollywood is over,” she argued. “Did you guys hear? It’s done. They’re buying each other, they’re collapsing. It’s all changed. They’re selling studio lots. The idea of going to Sundance and getting a three-picture deal from Harvey Weinstein? He’s in prison.”
Concluded DuVernay: “Everything has changed over the last 10 years, even since I’ve been making [movies and TV shows]. … It’s all: What do we do now? What can we build now that’s new, that serves more kinds of people and kinds of stories?” And she shared that more and more, it will be about artists and audiences connecting directly without a middle man or company that brings them together.
Asked what keeps her going and making political films, the creative pointed to alarm and urgency about the possible further erosions of democratic and human rights, pointing to the fear that President Donald Trump and ICE have caused in the United States. 14th shows “how we got to a place where MAGA can be in power,” she said.
How does DuVernay stay hopeful? “History is the key,” she shared. “I just think that there have been worse times than this. My ancestors and people before me, even 15 years ago, went through much tougher times.”
She continued: “This film saved me in a lot of ways. … The rage that I feel and the fear that I feel, I was really being able to pour it into 14th every day. I only finished the film two weeks ago, and so I really don’t know what I’m going to do from here.”
The Emmy-, BAFTA-, Peabody- and other award-winning writer, director and producer discussed her career, including her latest doc, Netflix’s 14th, which puts Trump administration policies (including efforts to end or restrict the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship) in a disturbing historical context.
She described 14th as a look at “how we got to a place where MAGA can be in power.”
How does she stay hopeful? “Well, history is the key,” DuVernay shared. “I just think that there have been worse times than this. My ancestors and people before me, even 15 years ago, went through much tougher times.”
“She has created seven television series, including the acclaimed When They See Us and history-making Queen Sugar,” the LFF noted in teasing DuVernay’s appearance. “In the cinema, Ava DuVernay has proven as comfortable directing beloved family adventures, such as the magical A Wrinkle in Time, as she has searing portraits of U.S. history, which include Selma and Origin. Her documentary 13th asked who gets caged; her new film 14th, screening in the festival, asks who gets counted.”
