As a Black woman filmmaker I feel that’s my job: visibility. And my preference within that job is Black subjectivity. Meaning I’m interested in the lives of Black folk as the subject. Not the predicate, not the tangent.[These stories] deserve to be told. Not as sociology, not as spectacle, not as a singular event that happens every so often, but regularly and purposefully as truth and as art on an ongoing basis, as do the stories of all the women you love.

Ava DuVernay

Categorized in : Art Jobs Black

If your dream only includes you, it's too small.

Ava DuVernay

your-dreams ifs dream

Be passionate and move forward with gusto every single hour of every single day until you reach your goal.

Ava DuVernay

passionate goal moving

Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you're focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don't have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short... make my documentary... make my small films... use my own money... raise money myself... and stay shooting and focused on each project.

Ava DuVernay

ceilings glasses use

Figure out what you need to do to be the heroine of your own story.

Ava DuVernay

figures stories needs

We have to find new ways to work without permission, new ways to turn corners and go through doors that are closed off to us to create our own audiences and our own material independently.

Ava DuVernay

permission doors way

Time will tell ... whether folks want to point and stare at the black woman filmmaker who made a certain kind of film, and pat her on the back, or if they want to actually roll up the sleeves and do a little bit of work so that there can be more of me coming through.

Ava DuVernay

black want littles

If you're doing something outside of dominant culture there's not an easy place for you. You will have to do it yourself.

Ava DuVernay

do-it-yourself easy culture

Don't wait for permission to do something creative.

Ava DuVernay

creativity creative waiting

There’s something very important about films about black women and girls being made by black women. It’s a different perspective. It is a reflection as opposed to an interpretation, and I think we get a lot of interpretations about the lives of women that are not coming from women.

Ava DuVernay

girl reflection thinking

I've passed along some advice that Oprah [Winfrey] gave to me: When something bad is happening, it's not happening to you; it's happening for you.

Ava DuVernay

happenings advice

When you're in your lane, there's no traffic.

Ava DuVernay

traffic lanes

The traditional ways to make a film, the traditional ways to share a film, have all collapsed. There are no gatekeepers, per se, any more, and anything can be done. Truly, I feel that.

Ava DuVernay

film done way

I did not have any problem with speaking up because my mother, my family, my grandmother, my aunt - I grew up in a family dominated by women - always encouraged me to do so. And if a girl is unafraid, then the world is her oyster.

Ava DuVernay

aunt girl mother

Stop asking, start doing.

Ava DuVernay

asking

If you have the ability to do something, you should do it.

Ava DuVernay

ability ifs should

Because my mom always told me that I could. From a very early age, I felt comfortable leading.

Ava DuVernay

comfortable mom age

If your work is solid, it really doesn't matter what people you know because good work starts to rise to the top.

Ava DuVernay

good-work matter people

All the traditional models for doing things are collapsing; from music to publishing to film, and it's a wide open door for people who are creative to do what they need to do without having institutions block their art.

Ava DuVernay

block doors art

I know that there are a lot of great women that have gone before me, so it's important to acknowledge them.

Ava DuVernay

great-women important gone

Usually, you have two people in a scene, and in the history of cinema the hero is most likely going to be the white guy. And the other guy is his friend who is carrying the bag or whatever, and you're not going to light for that guy.

Ava DuVernay

light hero two