Age: 53
female
Ava Marie DuVernay (/ˌdjuːvərˈneɪ/; born August 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer. She is a recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards, two NAACP Image Awards, a BAFTA Film Award, and a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe. In 2011, she founded her independent distribution company ARRAY. After making her directorial debut with I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award. For her work on Selma (2014), a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., DuVernay became the first African-American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Her other film credits include the Academy Award-nominated Netflix documentary 13th (2016) and the Disney fantasy film A Wrinkle in Time (2018), the latter making her the first African-American woman to direct a film with a $100 million budget. In 2023, she directed the biographical film Origin based on Isabel Wilkerson's book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents (2020). DuVernay's television credits include the OWN drama series Queen Sugar (2016) and two Netflix drama limited series: When They See Us (2019), based on the 1989 Central Park jogger case, and Colin in Black & White (2021), based on the teenage years of NFL player Colin Kaepernick. In 2017, DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2020, she was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch. Description above from the Wikipedia article Ava DuVernay, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Ava DuVernay
Director
for Director in Bleed Through: The Kristen Pfaff Story
Suggested by kamsismith
In the 1990s, the world of grunge music was dominated by a select few, but one woman was ready to carve her name into the scene. Bleed Through: The Kristen Pfaff Story tells the powerful, poignant tale of Kristen Pfaff—a gifted musician whose passionate, fearless spirit was matched only by the personal struggles that marked her brief but unforgettable life. Set against the explosive Seattle music scene backdrop, we follow Kristen’s journey from her early days as a self-taught bass player, discovering her identity through music, to her rise to fame with Hole. With a steadfast commitment to her craft, Kristen, portrayed by a breakout actress, brought a rare blend of fiery energy and vulnerability to her bandmates and fans alike. But the spotlight wasn’t kind. As Kristen’s star began to rise, so did the pressures of fame, addiction, and personal loss. Through raw and unflinching performances, the film delves deep into Kristen’s complicated relationship with her bandmates, her struggles with substance abuse, and her attempts to reconcile her inner turmoil with the expectations of the world around her. Along the way, we see her deep connection to Courtney Love, the explosive dynamics of the grunge scene, and Kristen’s brief, but impactful role in shaping the genre.
