By Maria Esteves The 54th New York Film Festival 2016 (NYFF54) Opening Night World Premiere of 13TH, press conference with writer, producer and director Ava DuVernay, moderated by festival director Kent Jones, NYFF, was held at the Walter Reade Theater Friday, September 30, 2016. Question posed to director DuVernay by members of the press "As an artist, what role do you think we need to play to bring a change?" Discussions with director DuVernay included Netflix documentary projec...

By Maria Esteves The 54th New York Film Festival 2016 (NYFF54) Opening Night World Premiere of 13TH, press conference with writer, producer and director Ava DuVernay, moderated by festival director Kent Jones, NYFF, was held at the Walter Reade Theater Friday, September 30, 2016. Question posed to director DuVernay by members of the press "As an artist, what role do you think we need to play to bring a change?" Discussions with director DuVernay included Netflix documentary project a...

MFF 17, by Jio-MAMI, Festival Diary, I                                                                                                        (Coming up: Part II) It began in 1997, as the International Film Festival of Mumbai (IFFM). Som...

  Last summer I saw Middle of Nowhere and was introduced to Sundance "Best Director" award winner Ava DuVernay at the Los Angeles International Film Festival. Since then DuVernay has directed a 30 for 30 ESPN documentary about Venus Williams, a few delicious kicka** shorts, network series TV, and was recently named director for the upcoming MLK biopic “Selma, among other things. Her keynote speech at Film Independent Forum was an empowering call to action! ...It centered ...

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The BlackStar Film Festival took place August 2-5, 2012 in Philadelphia. Its mission was to celebrate the visual and storytelling traditions of the African diaspora and to showcase film and video works by and about black people from across the globe. Other obligations did prevent me from attending all but one event, but it was a good one - A Conversation with Ava DuVernay.    Ava DuVernay, is the first African American woman to take home the U.S. directing award at Sundance Film...

“I’m really nervous,” said Duvernay as she introduced the film. “Maybe it’s because this is my hometown. Maybe it’s because there are over 1,000 of us here...But it’s probably the Angela Bassett factor.” Bassett showed up just to support the film. DuVernay is the first African American to win the Sundance award for Best Directing.  "Stephanie Allain is a doer," said DuVernay. "She said, 'This is a small story, but it&rsquo...