Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay
AFI Film Festival 2010
Born	Ava Marie DuVernay Long Beach, California, United States
Occupation(s)	filmmaker, film marketer
Years active	1999 – present

Ava DuVernay (born August 24) is an American filmmaker, film marketer and film distributor.

Film Marketing

DuVernay formed her award-winning publicity firm, The DuVernay Agency, in 1999. The company is currently known as DVA Media + Marketing. DVA has provided strategy and execution for more than 100 film and television campaigns by directors such as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Michael Mann, Robert Rodriguez, Bill Condon, Raoul Peck, Gurinder Chadha and Reggie & Gina Bythewood.

She also oversees the nation's largest urban retail promotional network, Urban Beauty Collective, which she launched in 2003.

Currently, DuVernay sits on Interactive One's Key Influencer Advisory Board and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Public Relations Committee.

Filmmaking

In 2008, DuVernay made her feature directorial debut with the documentary, This Is the Life, which won audience awards in Los Angeles, Toronto and Seattle. The film opened theatrically in March 2009, and premiered on Showtime Networks in May 2009. The film was financed, produced, marketed and distributed by DuVernay's DVA Media + Marketing.

In 2010, DuVernay directed three network music documentaries. The first, "My Mic Sounds Nice," chronicles the history of women in hip hop and was commissioned by BET Networks. In addition, she directed a two-hour music documentary chronicling the 2010 Essence Music Festival for Time Inc. Studios. Both films aired in August 2010 on BET and TV One respectively. On Thanksgiving Day 2010, TV One aired her third documentary of the year, Faith The The Storm, a look at the role faith and gospel music played in the lives of two black women Katrina survivors.

In 2011, DuVernay's first narrative feature film, "I Will Follow," a drama starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield, Michole White, Omari Hardwick and Beverly Todd, was released. The film was an official selection of AFI Fest and Chicago International Film Festivals, and won honors at Pan-African International Film Festival, BronzeLens and Urbanworld. Roger Ebert championed the film, stating "'I Will Follow' is one of the best films I've seen about coming to terms with the death of loved one. Directed by Ava DuVernay, it isn't sentimental, it isn't superficial. It is very deeply true." The film was released theatrically through AFFRM, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement on March 11, 2011 in concert with AMC Independent.

Previously, she has written and directed two award-winning shorts, "Compton in C Minor" and "Saturday Night Life," the latter of which was broadcast by Showtime Television in February 2007.

Film Distribution

On January 7, 2011 an article entitled "Building An Alliance To Aid Films By Blacks" by Michael Cieply was published in the New York Times about DuVernay's venture to organize African-American film festivals and orchestrate limited engagement theatrical releases for black independent films. The collective is called the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement or AFFRM. "I Will Follow" was the first theatrical release of AFRM on March 11, 2011, making it the first simultaneous national theatrical release powered completely by grassroots means with no formal marketing budget or corporate parent company. "I Will Follow" grossed a per-screen-average of more $11,463, and expanded from five screens in five cities to 22 screens in 15 cities after its first weekend.

External links

• Internet Movie Database
• "This is The Life" review by Ernest Hardy in LA WEEKLY
• "This is The Life" review by Justin Chang in VARIETY
• "This is The Life" review by Robert Abele in LOS ANGELES TIMES
• BLACK ENTERPRISE MAGAZINE "Action! New Generation of Black Filmmakers" feature by Marcia Talbert
• LOS ANGELES TIMES "Next in Line" feature by Greg Braxton
• HUFFINGTON POST "My Mic Sounds Nice" review by George Alexander
• NPR "Female Emcees Say 'My Mic Sounds Nice'"
• BILLBOARD Documentary explores state of hip hop for women by Gail Mitchell
• EBERT PRESENTS review of "I Will Follow" by Roger Ebert
• CHICAGO SUN-TIMES review of "I Will Follow" by Roger Ebert
• VILLAGE VOICE review of "I Will Follow" by Michelle Orange
• PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER review of "I Will Follow" by Carrie Rickey
• THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER review of "I Will Follow" by Frank Scheck
• NEW YORK TIMES "Building An Alliance To Aid Films By Blacks" by Michael Cieply
• LOS ANGELES TIMES "For Ava DuVernay, making 'I Will Follow' is personal"
• Ava DuVernay Filmmaker Site