MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Ava DuVernay is a bitch.

Ava DuVernay is a bitch.


And I never use the word "bitch" to describe a woman but I feel here it's needed. There was a time where I liked her but her comments about race lately are driving me up the wall. For example:

https://twitter.com/ava/status/1092486041460559873

She is asking people to name song from Black artists that, in her words, Caucasians wouldn't know. She only brought up Caucasians. She's implying that white people are so ignorant that they can't name a lesser known song by a black artist. Let's see how many songs by Asian artists she can name, or a song by a native American person. Let's see how many songs she can name that isn't in the English language. It's divisive stuff like this why racism doesn't stop.

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That is a little nutty. For some reason, talking about race tends to make people stupid.

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Don't give her attention.

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black people are so sensitive to race.............

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That's a generalization. But Ava DuVernay definitely is.

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What a weirdo. So as a white person I should know every single song in the world? Can she name any obscure country song?

P.S. I have no idea who this woman is.

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She directed Selma and some other poorly received stuff.

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Ah yes. I could've googled it, of course, but honestly, I didn't find her interesting enough to bother.

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She's also a terrible movie director. All she can do (semi-well) are films about race. You try having her do anything else, and she's awful at telling a story on screen. She also inserts as many non-white people into her movies as possible, even when the story had primarily white people in it. (Racist much, Ava?) Just take a look at that wreck she made called "A Wrinkle in Time." The only reason she has gotten anywhere in show biz is because she's friends with powerful black people in that sphere, such as Oprah. That, and she's a black liberal that repeats the same lies and beliefs other black liberals NPC's in show biz recite. Otherwise, if she had tried getting anywhere on actual skills, she ranks very far below actual talented movie directors.

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I liked Selma. Liked, not loved. But from the other stuff on her filmography: 13th, Queen Sugar, Middle of Nowhere, it seems she's a one topic director. And every one of her films have a Black lead. Really? There are a lot of great Asian and Hispanic actors but she only focuses on Black.

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Doesn't every James Cameron or Christopher Nolan film feature a white lead?

Why is it any different for DuVernay, who has only made a handful of features so far, to focus on black leads?

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Two reasons. First Cameron and Nolan aren't saying Hollywood needs diversity and not doing it themselves. The second, Black people in America have a lot smaller population in America, so finding a Black lead would be more difficult.

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I agree with the second point, but that still means that in theory at least 18% of American films should feature a black lead. It also means that 50% of films should feature a female one, but I seriously doubt that is the case.

But sure, I'd be happy to see a film industry that proportionately reflected the genuine demographics of the US.

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in theory at least 18% of American films should feature a black lead


I agree, the percentages don't always add up. I don't think they ever will. For example: Ava DuVernay brings up representation in so many interviews. She's never done a movie with a lead that was a disabled actor, gay/transgender, and actor not Black or White, etc. Where's their representation? It's fake social justice. She can call out other people while she's being biased in her own ways. I don't blame her because everyone is like that, but she's the one on her high horse calling people out.

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Oh, come on!

I don't always agree with Ava DuVernay, but she is not solely responsible for ensuring that all minorities are represented on film. But she is doing her part to get more POC on film.

Hopefully she will encourage other minority groups, including the disabled and the LGBTQ community, to flourish too, without necessarily being the one spearheading that representation.

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No she's not responsible but she is casting minority Black people in leads while James Cameron and Nolan are casting majority White while she thinks it's wrong. The link to the tweet I provided proves the bias she has. Antoine Fuqua always casts Black leads but he's not criticizing those who don't.

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Your link was about songs from black artists that white people wouldn't supposedly know.

Are you sure that DuVernay has criticised white filmmakers for not casting POC?

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She never called out anyone specifically but she always talks about a lack of diversity in Hollywood. However, recently she crticized Liam Neeson and Melania Trump for their white privilege.

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White privilege exists, but it was dumb of DuVernay to pick on Neeson, a working class Catholic growing up in Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and Melania Trump, an immigrant woman who grew up in an apartment block in Communist occupied Yugoslavia, having to evade persecution for being Catholic.

Looking at Ava DuVernay's Wikipedia page, I see she grew up as the daughter of an educator, and attended a private girls' school growing up, so, I imagine, under reasonably well-to-do circumstances, albeit probably not super-wealthy (seeing as her home was Lynwood, California). In other words, one might argue that DuVernay is the product of socioeconomic privilege, and she is deflecting from that privilege by attacking two white people who experienced backgrounds and environments that were quite difficult (and for what it's worth, there would have been next to no POC living where Neeson and Melania grew up during their formative years, so the US racial dynamic would not have applied to them).

DuVernay's ignorance and solipsism, in terms of her lack of understanding or sympathy for the various socio-political circumstances that applied in Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia, is worrying for a documentarian who prides herself on her grasp of history. Like many others Americans, on all sides of the political spectrum, she really needs to get her head out of her ass.

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Exactly. Her, as well as many other people, fail to see their own privileges while turning a blind eye to the hardships of others.

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It was a stupid comment.

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"She's implying that white people are so ignorant that they can't name a lesser known song by a black artist. Let's see how many songs by Asian artists she can name, or a song by a native American person."


Ignorance has nothing to do with it... your point about Asian and Native songs is exactly her point too!

EXACTLY. Cultural differences are real.

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I'm not sure what her point is, but imagine if you will a white person saying "can you name songs from white artists that the average black person wouldn't know?"

What good would be achieved by such nonsense?

Anyway, reading up on privately educated, middle-class Ava DuVernay's Wikipedia page, I now see where she's coming from. She's one of those socioeconomically privileged people just looking for an enemy to rail against, rather than simply embracing and feeling thankful for their privileges.

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Has she always had that privilege? Maybe, I'm genuinely asking. I know nothing of Ava.

I came across this concept earlier today with that stroz (or whatever the name was) in our Brie Larson discussion, saying she doesn't know amything about struggling as a female actress, ignoring that Brie has not been a famous actress from the moment she was born, nor was the career handed to her. She was likely a struggling actress for a long time.

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I didn't know anything about Ava DuVernay's background until I did a quick Wikipedia search about an hour or so ago (admittedly, it's not exactly the most thorough type of research). But I was intrigued to find out what type of background DuVernay came from since another poster had advised me that she had attacked Liam Neeson, a working-class Catholic raised in Troubles era Northern Ireland, and Melania Trump, who grew up under Communist tyranny in an apartment block in Yugoslavia, and whose family were required to hide their Catholic faith from the secular/atheist regime, for white privilege.

That is not to say that Neeson and Melania Trump don't possess some form of white privilege, being white and all, but I also suspect that relative to Ava DuVernay, the daughter of an educator, who attended a private girls' school, and was born and raised and was able to make a successful career in California, without having to move abroad, Neeson and Melania Trump are relatively underprivileged.

As for Brie Larson, my understanding is that she entered acting as a child, and was enrolled in a theatre school as young as six, and began professionally acting during her youth. She's only 29 now, and already a big star/Academy Award winner, so compared to most people, I'm not sure she has known much failure and professional hardship. I'm not taking anything away from her here. She's talented and deserves her success, but in that respect she's also very fortunate compared to most people, even within the acting community.

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