Named on the Forbes 50 Over 50 list in 2024, director Ava DuVernay talked about Origin, a film made outside the studio system, about picking up a camera for the first time at 32, and about the freedom of owning her own space. The interview starts at 2:19:19 in this Forbes video.
A new way to finance a film
For DuVernay, society is “the stories that we tell each other about one another”, and those stories have “tilted one way for far too long”. She wanted Origin released before the 2024 election, not to influence the result, but to encourage more rigour in public conversation at a time of fatigue, misinformation and tribalism.
The film’s $38 million budget did not come from a studio. DuVernay designed a model that brought together philanthropic organisations, like-minded individuals and social impact investors, a first for a narrative feature. It gave her the most freedom she had known since her early, self-funded projects: her partners contributed and “then they left me alone”. Her company shot the film on three continents in 37 days.
Cinema for everyone
DuVernay does not mind people watching films on a plane or a laptop. She grew up in Compton, California, which had no cinema, and knows what she calls “cinema segregation”: easy access to films is a privilege. She also encourages young filmmakers to self-finance, now that a feature can be shot on a phone and edited on a laptop.
Melinda French Gates chose her as one of a group of women each given $20 million to give away to organisations that support women and girls. She describes the task as an honour and a long journey of learning.
Starting at 32
DuVernay was a film publicist when, watching directors on set, she began to think about where she would put the camera. She did not quit overnight. She wrote at weekends, took classes before and after work, and moved slowly towards her goal, until she realised “the making your way towards it is the dream”. Now 51, she says she never imagined her career: there was no Black woman filmmaker she could look to who worked every year.
She owns her company’s campus, which she calls, in her mentor Haile Gerima’s words, “liberated territory”. Her advice: “You are the director of your life. You call action in the morning.”