Ava Duvernay’s Array has partnered with Google to create a new $500,000 feature film grant available to up-and-coming creatives from historically underrepresented communities.
Food activist Jocelyn Jackson, co-founder of People’s Kitchen Collective and founder of JUSTUS Kitchen, talks about her latest installation, ‘FIXED PRICE MENU’. The unique project, funded by Ava DuVernay’s LEAP initiative, spotlights the life of Philando Castile and Officer Jeronimo Yanez, who killed him during a routine traffic stop.
Filmmaker Ava DuVernay counts herself as one of the many people inspired by W.J. Lofton’s powerful visual poem “We Ask For Fire”—in which he repeats the words, “the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor are at home with their families”—as protesters around the world demanded justice following her death last March.
Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY has announced six executive additions and the promotion of veteran exec Mercedes Cooper ahead of the narrative change collective’s 10th anniversary.
Far too often, Black and other Film/TV crew members of color often hear a variation on trite excuse, “We keep hiring this white person because there aren’t a lot of [insert specific POC identifier here] directors, producers, cinematographers, production designers, costume designers, editors, etc.!”
There were never any wanted signs outside the police academy or candlelight vigils in suburbia. The four police officers who shot and killed Amadou Diallo in his doorway 21 years ago were acquitted. One of them, Kenneth Boss, eventually got his gun back and earned a promotion.