Award-winning director Ava DuVernay will break down the business of filmmaking during a discussion on Black to the Future: Era of the Artist Entrepreneur. Presented by 2012-2013 William and Camille Cosby Endowed Professor in the Humanities, Tananarive Due, the evening with the screenwriter and director will feature a clip from DuVernay’s prize-winning film Middle of Nowhere and dialogue centered on her artist-entrepreneur business model “Black Art Rising.”
Emayatzy Corinealdi, the lead actress in Middle of Nowhere, will also appear with DuVernay, who made history when she became the first African-American woman to win Best Director at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival. DuVernay is the first of many artists Due will bring to the college throughout the year to highlight the future of black arts.
“Ava DuVernay is the first guest in my lecture series because she encompasses the full scope of the 21st century artist-entrepreneur and how to take one’s creative work through a business process that leads to success,” said Due. “As a writer, producer, director and distributor, DuVernay is creating a blueprint for filmmakers of tomorrow.”
Scheduled for release in October 2012, Middle of Nowhere, DuVernay’s second feature film is a love story about a woman coping with her husband’s imprisonment. While researching for the film, DuVernay interviewed dozens of women impacted by the mass incarceration epidemic. DuVernay made her feature directorial debut in 2008 with the critically-acclaimed documentary This Is the Life. She has also directed network music documentaries, including My Mic Sounds Nice for BET and the Essence Music Festival 2010 for TV One. DuVernay is the co-founder of AFFRM, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement.
WHEN:
Thursday, Sept. 27, 2012
5 p.m. – 6:30 p.m.
Free and open to the public
Source: 11Alive News
