Ava DuVernay is a new-age filmmaker who has grown to become one of America’s most prolific directors and producers. She has made headlines for many things including her deal with Warner Bros and recently becoming the first African-American woman to premiere a movie in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
The 51-year-old presented her movie “Origin” after overcoming doubters who attempted to encourage her not to apply.
DuVernay turned her attention to philanthropists like Melinda French Gates during the release of the movie, which is based on a 500-page book about race relations by Isabel Wilkerson.
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According to Forbes, she walked away from Netflix when there was disagreement over when to release the film. The deadline was important because of the U.S. presidential election. She noted that she’s not trying to influence the U.S. election but instead generate dialogue between people who might have become “closed off” from each other.
In doing so, she turned down Netflix’s offer to finance the project and raised $38 million to make the film herself. She raised the money from philanthropists like French Gates and organizations like the Ford Foundation, making it the first time this model of financing has been used to support a narrative film.
“More often than not, the stories that get told in our country—and the people who tell them—represent only a small slice of the population. Ava is completely disrupting that model. With her latest film, ‘Origin,’ she challenged the way films are traditionally made and proved that audiences are hungry for stories centered on justice and equality. I was so proud to help support that project,” French Gates told Forbes.
In May, French Gates announced that she would be giving $1 billion to advance gender equity globally. DuVernay is currently helping to identify recipients of these funds.
“When I thought of the global leaders I wanted to offer $20 million in grantmaking funds, Ava was a no-brainer. She has the creative vision the world needs right now, and I can’t wait to see what she does next,” French Gates said.
“Now DuVernay—one of the featured faces on this year’s Forbes 50 Over 50 list—is entering a new phase of her career. She’s considering ways to make a statement about injustices through the lens of a genre film, say a romance or thriller. She’s also thinking about how to make more films outside of the traditional studio system—this time from start to finish, including the distribution process—dodging the endless loop of feedback and collective decision-making,” according to Forbes.
Born on August 24, 1972, in Long Beach, California, DuVernay’s career started with journalism when she was an intern at CBS, where she was assigned to the O.J. Simpson case. However, she was disillusioned with journalism and opted for public relations instead.
She would open her own PR firm and venture into other businesses such as the promotional network called Urban Beauty Collective.
DuVernay’s entry into the film industry started in 2005 with a short film called Saturday Night Life, but soon after, she turned to documentaries as they asked for lower budgets than fiction films and it was a chance for her to learn the trade.
After several documentaries and narrative films, DuVernay made her mark globally in 2012 when her film, Middle of Nowhere, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. She won the U.S. Directing Award: Dramatic, becoming the first African-American woman to do so. The film also earned her the 2012 Independent Spirit John Cassavetes Award.
From there, it has been up and up for DuVernay, who became a much sought-after filmmaker. She worked on projects such as August 28: A Day in the Life of a People, which was commissioned by Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture; Selma, which earned her numerous accolades; 13th, a documentary on the status of prisons in the U.S. and named after the 13th amendment; and a Wrinkle in Time, based on a 1962 novel of the same name, which made DuVernay the first woman of color direct a live-action film with a budget of over $100 million.
DuVernay has also worked on TV shows such as Queen Sugar, a story of the estranged Bordelon siblings in Louisiana, as well as music and advertising videos.
