Heineken Affinity Award Profile: Ava DuVernay

Read all the profiles so far. An initiative through our Tribeca All Access® program, the Affinity Award celebrates emerging and established African-American filmmakers by creating further awareness and dialogue around their work. Learn more here. Along with the Affinity Award winners receiving an initial grant, you can now vote for one filmmaker to win a $20,000 cash award, which will be announced during the 2013 Tribeca Film Festival. Vote here. Affinity Award winner Ava DuVernay is known by some in the industry as a savvy film marketer and publicist, some know her as a film distributor and within the last year many more know her as a filmmaker. With her second feature film Middle of Nowhere, DuVernay became the first African-American woman to win the Best Director prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012. For over ten years previous to that milestone she formed marketing and publicity firm The DuVernay Agency (later known as DVA Media + Marketing), handling more than 100 film and TV projects. In 2011 she was involved with the formation of the collection, (also known as AFFRM), which has released her first film I Will Follow as well as 2011 Sundance selection, Restless City, directed by fellow Affinity Award winner Andrew Dosunmu. Recently, Middle of Nowhere was released theatrically in October through AFFRM and Participant Media. DuVernay's currently in development on her third feature, Part of the Sky, which follows two displaced people who meet in Compton and begin a relationship. Asked what she wants audiences to get out of her filmmaking, DuVernay says… "I just want them to watch and remember. That's all. Remember what you like about it, remember what you dislike, remember any feelings it brought up for you. That's all. I simply don't want to make films that one forgets by the time they get home. We've all seen those. Films never to enter our thoughts again. I want to make films that at least offer something for your memory. Beyond that, I can't control and really don't care to. I can't focus on WHAT you think about it. I just want you to think about it period." VOTE HERE