Ava DuVernay

Right.

to tell these kind of televisual stories and and i do think there is a way if you think about now right yeah there are smatterings of films that are being made by black people about black life but you know but not in the number there should be right that it should be right thank god we have a barry jenkins right thank god we have d reese and we have ava duvernay and we have you know julie dash and nema barnett all these you know but these people should have been making you know And I'm sure they're having to go back to the drawing board because they're getting turned down, you know, for a lot of stuff.

I think about Alicia Harris's.

I think Alicia Harris's movie is God is, which is a brilliant, brilliant movie.

Yeah, it is super white.

And I think your point is so interesting because, yeah, what if like what if Ava DuVernay made that film about Elizabeth Holmes? I would be far more interested in her story.

perspective on Elizabeth Holmes and like yeah like two rich white guys right or whatever I don't know if they're rich but like you know privileged guys and I that's where I also wonder if that creepiness that sort of like erotic almost obsession with her an erotic obsession with hating her wouldn't have been in the film because ultimately at the end a lot of people say I They'll push back on my Amanda Seyfried, you know, whole thing.

And they'll be like, well, at the end, Amanda Seyfried is the one who says, well, don't you think that when sorry, this is spoiler for people who haven't seen it.

Felicia Rashad, Black America's mama herself.

She was 36 years old when she became Claire Huxtable and Ava DuVernay was 42 when Selma was released.

Taraji P. Henson had been on our screens since Baby Boy, but it wasn't until she was 44 years old when Empire premiered and Viola Davis was 50 when she won her historic Emmy.

We love these stories.

Maybe for some people, but it's just like soulless is the best way to describe it, in my opinion.

Meanwhile, Ava DuVernay is trying to explain the use of AI in her upcoming documentary, 14th.

which tackles the 14th amendment, which is the birthright citizenship amendment, which the current administration is wiping their butts with.

So AI in this documentary is being used to bring archival photographs to life.

I don't think the 14th...

I know everybody's got Ava DuVernay's 14th in.

I don't think that one is in.

Okay, here's another one that I do think is in.

you know, everything you think, you know, and you don't know about that story.

And I thought, I thought that one was really well done.

But yeah, the three that I guess that I think I don't see Musk getting in because I think that it's three hours long and it's just, I think the thing with 14th about Ava DuVernay is I think that the AI stuff is going to hurt her.

I really do.

Excuse me, we've seen a few pieces of work that have gotten a lot of public conversation, I think, about race.

Ava DuVernay did a book on – excuse me, did a film on the book.

The book was called – the show – the film was called – God.

She did a book – there was a book – I'm going to try and remember what it was called.

Yeah, I saw that film.

Yeah.

And Ava DuVernay made it into a film.

And it really talks about like oftentimes when we're talking about race, sometimes it is about race and sometimes it's about class and the way those things fit together in this country.

Natalie Baszile is a writer and filmmaker.

Her previous novel, Queen Sugar, was adapted for seven television seasons by writer-director Ava DuVernay and co-produced by Oprah Winfrey.

We talk about that in the conversation ahead.

Her nonfiction includes the book We Are Each Other's Harvest, celebrating African-American farmers, land, and legacy, and has appeared in National Geographic, The Bitter Southerner, O, The Oprah Magazine, and numerous anthologies.

different,

offering them something that they have not seen before.

And, you know, I had a conversation with Oprah Winfrey, Ms. Winfrey and Ava DuVernay and early on before the show aired, I think, I don't even know if Ava had actually even started to write it at that point.

But what I told them was, please do two things.

Right.

to tell these kind of televisual stories and and i do think there is a way if you think about now right yeah there are smatterings of films that are being made by black people about black life but you know but not in the number there should be right that it should be right thank god we have a barry jenkins right thank god we have d reese and we have ava duvernay and we have you know julie dash and nema barnett all these you know but these people should have been making you know And I'm sure they're having to go back to the drawing board because they're getting turned down, you know, for a lot of stuff.

I think about Alicia Harris's.

I think Alicia Harris's movie is God is, which is a brilliant, brilliant movie.

All right.

Now it's time for the next clip, which is Ava DuVernay, the writer and director.

She's celebrating the debut of 14th.

It's a follow up to her hit documentary, 13th.