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 Soulful Reverie: The Nina Simone Story
Suggested by kamsismith
In the racially divided America of the 1950s and '60s, Nina Simone's music transcended boundaries, uniting people with the force of her soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics. "Soulful Reverie" takes audiences on an emotional rollercoaster through Nina's life, highlighting pivotal moments such as her early struggles in the segregated South, her rise to fame in the jazz and blues scene, and her transformation into a fearless advocate for civil rights. The film explores Nina's complex relationships, particularly her deep connection with her music, her tumultuous marriage to Andy Stroud, and her friendships with iconic figures like Martin Luther King Jr. and Lorraine Hansberry. It paints a vivid portrait of a woman who used her music as a weapon for change, as she composed anthems like "Mississippi Goddam" and "To Be Young, Gifted and Black." "Soulful Reverie" showcases the incredible highs and devastating lows of Nina's life, including her struggles with mental health and her quest for artistic authenticity. Through powerful performances and raw emotion, viewers will witness the evolution of an artist who refused to be silenced.
