When
Ava Duvernay began her talk, saying she had had a bad week (family issues), had
not had a chance to work on her speech, and then finally decided to write it in
the form of a journal entry, my heart sank. However, she went on to say that after pondering the five
things that day that she could be grateful for (Oprah Winfrey’s advice to her
as daily ritual) she became inspired about what she was going to say. This particular day she was grateful
for a quiet flight, the greetings she had received from SXSW staff members, the
stories she was told by her production designer about a stint in the Israeli
Army, a great hotel room, and being inspired about what she planned to say
today.
She
framed it in terms of intentions that
underlie our attention. She recounted her intentions in the
films she made before Selma. First, for I Will Follow, a $50 million endeavor, her primary intentions were
to get it kick-started and distributed, and she organized a collective for this
purpose. Her attention was then
focused on distribution of films and affirming herself as a filmmaker. Now, she sees her error: She had placed her sense of self-worth
on factors outside of herself.
Her
second film was Middle of Nowhere, a
$200 thousand endeavor. Sundance
had rejected her films five times previously, so this time, her intentions were
focused on making the deadline for submission, which she made, and the film was
accepted. Her error this time, she
says, was that her dream was too small; it was only about her, and she was
still relying on factors outside herself for validation.
With
her third film, Selma, there was a
huge boost in the budget: $20
million. Someone said to her,
“It’s a hell of a thing to get everything you wanted.” This bugged her a bit, and she realized
she needed to set aside her ego for something beyond herself. This filled her with bewilderment and
wonder, and her motto became “Serve this story.” She should have nothing else in mind but that the film should
be made for others.
She
had to go beyond her self-perception of being a “Little Oprah”, she ignored
reviews, was not obsessed with award considerations, etc. In other words, she “went nerd”, and
she and her star David Oyelowo determined to go to every theater in Los Angeles
on opening day and watch the film with the audience. As she watched their reactions, she said this brought her
more joy than all the other films. Duvernay’s message to us in all this is to “go big” with our
dreams and open them up beyond ourselves.
For Selma, Duvernay felt
better grounded in her intentions; this time, she was aware that her dream was
so much larger than herself. She
simply needed to tell the story, and it was about service.
Duvernay
says she is still awestruck; she was thrilled during the whirl of award season,
dinner at the White House, visiting Oprah and other famous people in their
homes, and a conversation with Meryl Street, but realized that a film’s worth
is not in all that: It’s about
making films that will be of service to others.
Duvernay
clearly deserved the standing ovation and thunderous applause she
received. And it occurred to me
that because of her insightful qualities, I figure she was not disappointed
about not getting an Oscar nomination; she was more grateful for the
approbation of the people who saw her film, particularly those people who
participated in the Selma demonstrations.
Rarely
are the newly famous so insightful.
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