So Eva, I told you this already that thank you for the special privilege to see the film. I wish it was something that we could share with each and every one of you, but here I will tell you you absolutely must see origin when it comes to a theater.
But knowing the book and how complex and challenging and how deeply researched the thesis of this monumental piece of work that as I said left my heart pounding in my mind, reeling what inspired you to take this project on and translate to a feature film? Well, I'm always happy to sit with you. So thank you for having me. Thank you for having me, folks.
People told me this was an unadaptable book. So the only logical thing to do is to try to adapt it. But the book really grabbed me. The first time I read it, I was taken by the fact that I didn't quite get it. And that frustrated me. So I read it again. And I just read it three times and started to feel really connected to some of the stories and some of the characters that the author uses to bring us into this idea that she has, this thesis that so much of our oppression is linked and that if we embrace the commonalities of our challenges that there was a way forward, a blueprint to trying to kind of combat some of our social ills.
And so within that, that's a hard movie to make, just that. But I'd heard about these beautiful stories about her life. She's a remarkable woman, Isabel Wilkerson. And so I thought, well, maybe I can use her life and work as the impetus for the story. And so started to try to find those parallels and was really, I felt guided through the process. You know, sometimes she just get in a groove. I have a friend who cooks really well. I really don't. And she just gets in a groove. She can make something out of whatever's in the kitchen. They don't even look like they connect, but she can put it together. This film was the first time I felt like I got in a groove out of everything that I made.
And that two things, her life and the historical context of cast, somehow fit together, even though on its surface it may not look like it. And I think most people hearing that you've made a film of cast would think, oh, it's going to be a documentary, another one of the stunning Ava documentaries. But it is in fact a narrative film. It's a narrative film where you follow real live actors through the process.
Blessively, I was able to work with one of the best actors working today, Anjanae Ellis, who is our lead. She plays Isabel Wilkerson, and she's extraordinary, and was able to figure out a way to tell the story of the deep historical theories and the kind of social phenomena of cast within the story of a woman and her love story with her family and her husband.
Go away . Move up . Everywhere. All over the place. There's connective tissue. All of this. All of it. Is linked. All over the place. All over the place. All over the place.
That's a little snippet. Wow, that's good. So what she says and I don't know if you could hear. She says all of this is linked. There's connective tissue to all of it. That was the piece of the book that resonated with me so much. So often in our challenges we feel alone. The way you can know there are folks facing similar things in different places and different times. Similar to people in this room you start to feel they're strength in numbers and there's some foundation to succeed. Along with taking on the challenge of a very complex set of theories that Isabelle Wilkerson puts forward in the book.
You had a lot of other creative choices to make and challenges to get such a film made. Like money. Yeah, like money. Sometimes I wish I should have just gone to sculpture. Just need the piece of, but yes, money is a big thing and you know on its face when you talk to studios and you say you know I want to make a film about cast. It's not top of the list of things that they're interested in making.
So the strategy was not even to go there. So not go to each and every studio because I'm a realist. I know that this is a business and I understand that there are certain barriers to entry in the minds of studios as to whether or not this would be successful. So what we were able to do was raise the money independently.
That's why Anjanae Ellis is in, yay, independence. Come on, independence. Raise the money independently. That's why Anjanae Ellis's involvement is so extraordinary because she had just come off of the Academy Award nomination for King Richard and could have really done anything. And we asked her to come and join this independent film. She actually asked, we asked each other to come and join this independent film. And we held hands and I took that lady all over the world. We did three continents in 37 days. And I really needed a partner who could stand toe to toe with me and do that work with independent money. Independent means there's no more. This is the money. And there's nothing else coming. And it was a fantastic way to work. It was a freeing in a way.
And I know that with all of your work, you always have a strategy too about what will be the impact of the film. And how does it go beyond seeing the film on screen? What are those plans? I just feel like making the film on its own and being satisfied with the film being out is really just half the work for myself as a filmmaker. I can't just put it out. I need to make sure that it gets to the audience. That it reaches folks. That it's understood. That it's interrogated. That it's shared.
And so I have this crazy idea that I want every 16 year old in the country to be able to see the film for free if they want. And so. This is not a very. They're four million 16 year olds in the country right now. If we can get a hundred thousand of them in, we'd be. But you know, I want them to be able to see it for free. So I literally made a website over the weekend called Seat16.com. And you just go on a new buy ticket for a 16 year old. It goes into a fund. And when it's time in January, when the film comes out of December or January, when the film comes out, that goes from Seat16.com. Not sweet. Seat. Isn't it cute? And. But the idea that at that age, you're starting to interrogate your place in the world and what the world means to you and how you fit in. And I just think it's such a tender age, especially at this time that young people be able to be autonomous and what they learn. That they're not told what they can't learn. You know what I mean? That they're able to read what they want to read, see what they want to see. And so. That's our little solution. Not at all surprising that that would be one of the aspirations.
And then watching it, I mean, it really does change your mind. I found myself thinking every student everywhere in the world should see this film. And make these connective tissue that is so clear in her theory and in the film. Did you believe all the theories when you started or did something change for you in the making of the film? Did you learn something that was new and a discovery? I learned so much. Everything about the Indian people, the Dalit people I knew nothing about. I feel I'm an educated person. I thought I was well read. I'm not. We live in a container that doesn't really promote the idea that we should be learning about people's daily lives in any place other than here. And that is our media. That is our school system. I mean, we've got it in many people in this audience. You know you have to grab your education. You have to continue to educate yourself.
So when we talk about students, it's not just young people. We need to continually be students. I think that's why everybody's here. Continuing to learn, continuing to listen and explore. And so there was so much in the book that I maybe knew a little bit of or I hadn't made connections to, but almost every single thing about the Dalit people in India I had never heard about. I've heard about untouchables in India, but I thought that was like a feudal ancient India, not happening now in the ways that it is. So we explore that in the film. One of the many things that hopefully folks will take away. There's so many things that you take away. And it's actually true of all of your work. Ava, I always feel that there's some revelatory truth that comes, whether it's 13 or it's when they see us.
You were the one who watched it. Thank you, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am. All right, Selma, are you a. Is that my second question? Hey! That was my next name. She knows. That was Queen Sugar. Absolutely no, Queen Sugar. But that seems to be the core, that's something you would say about an Ava DuVernay work. Right? I hope so, but I'm really just making what I'm interested in, what I've learned in trying to pass along. And I learned the information in 13th I wanted to share it.
When I understood what was happening with black farmers in this country, I wanted to make Queen Sugar and everything that's within it. So I just. I'm like a voracious reader who will then go make a movie about it. And it's a beautiful way to further our knowledge because images embed themselves, I believe, images embed their selves in our imagination in a way that words alone don't. You know, we think in picture. You know, when your memories are pictures. And so to be able to approximate that, to render that in film is such an honor that when I first was able to do it and show my work in a theater like this and watch the back of people's heads as they were watching the screen and understand that emotion was coming from the images that I made, it was highly addictive and something that I've never gotten over.
And one of the other characteristics of everything you've done as you've moved and journey through Hollywood's power systems to become one of its most admired people and one of the world's most admired talents, Ava, is that you have also brought other people with you. It wasn't just enough that you made the journey to the top. Because that's not fun. Do you want to be there by yourself? What's the. What's that fun? But you actualize that in creating your own studio and talk to us about array, what its purpose is and what it has done for people of color in the film industry.
You know, it's a handmade, homemade space. You know, mom and pop stores, this is just a mom store. It's a place where we make what we want to make. We say what we want to say. We educate ourselves and other people. We congregate around ideas and images. But it's really community. I found that it's just boring by yourself. It's not as much fun to be at the. On the red carpet, the awards show that all those things are not as much fun as being able to sit in a theater and watch a movie with folks who are being able to see the movie for free, to discuss a film or to talk about ideas or to listen to a lecture. So we have a small campus in Los Angeles that is a community space, has a small theater. And we just invite people to come in and out and share their imagination and their ideas with us.
And we've created an array crew, which is a database so that people of color, women of all kinds, older people, people who are kind of aged out of our industry and no longer called for crew jobs. They're all in a database. All of the people that are outside of the box. You can find them and you can hire them. On Queen's Sugar, we hired all women directors for seven seasons. Whenever you're doing the work, you're just finding ways. Thank you. I'm just really finding ways to have good people around. And it's really, really simple. And to show up for other people, which you have clearly done as a role model, clearly. And I know that you value that. You value the mentors who have been in your life and the mentorship that you've offered to others.
And recently you brought back whatever your early mentor, someone who had inspired you around a concept that I found fascinating. And I'd love you to talk about it a bit. The idea that what we all need to find is our liberated territory. Yes. What is that? So, Hilary Garima. I don't know if anyone here knows Hilary Garima. Hilary Garima. An extraordinary filmmaker, Ethiopian, born filmmaker, who studied at UCLA. Went on to be a professor of film and art at Howard University for many years. Has a small bookstore and cafe called Sankofa. Named after his film, Sankofa. Anybody seen Sankofa here? Sankofa. Sankofa, the most sublime, exquisite, deeply moving, nuanced rendering of any depiction of slavery of African people ever made, in my opinion. Now on Netflix. Distributed by Ray. But, and he has this idea that in order to thrive, not just as an artist, but as a person, you must find and claim your liberated territory.
So, for him it was that bookstore, Sankofa. This is my space. This is where I work. This is my physical space where I can be courageous. Where I can dream and fulfill those dreams within my own mind, my own heart, and with my own hands. So, I duplicated that and made our array campus in Los Angeles very much modeled after that. But I've continued to think about liberated territory in other ways, because what if you aren't a filmmaker? Or what if you can't have these buildings? What is the liberated territory? The space where you feel the most courageous. Doesn't even have to be a physical space. It needs to be the space that you can go to inside yourself. That is your safe place. Where you allow yourself to be able to ideate, have bad ideas, talk yourself into ideas, talk yourself out of that idea. Right? And just cultivate that within yourself.
So, for me it wasn't just the physical space. It was also freeing my mind and freeing up spaces within me where I said, this is my liberated territory. This is where I go. This is my time. This is the way I do it to just let my mind be free and have courage. Have courage. And so, it doesn't just come. You have to create the right conditions. And that term liberated territory, it stayed with both of us when we talked about it. And it is a bit of a mantra. So, my hope is that I found mine in film. And the hope is that we can all find ours in whatever ways we're able to. You did find yours in film and because you found yours, you're providing liberated territory for many of the rest of us.
And I often think when I look at such monumental work, and that really does characterize all of your work. Ava, I think, what could be next? I don't know. And you know what? This is the first time that I've ever not known what my next project is. Since I started, I didn't pick up a camera until I was 32. And so, when I got the opportunity to make films, I just thought the door was going to close. I need to go fast. I need to keep going before they figure out, I don't know what I'm doing. You know, I've never went to film school. I just picked up the camera. And so, I just started running as fast as I can. And this really is the first film, working with Anjani, working with the teams that I've been with for a long time. I was able to, at the end of this process, which we just finished the film a couple of weeks ago, say, I don't have something else next. And that's okay. You know, that's okay to take a second. You know, the door is not going to close. The door is not going to close. And you know what? If it does, I've got my liberated territory. I'll just be right over here. It's okay. But it's the first time I don't know, and it feels really nice.
Well, the door is definitely not going to close. And to go back to origin and the way that I felt watching this film and the way I thought about it so many times since, I wonder what is your highest, deepest aspiration for the way people will respond, what will be the change? What do you want the response to be? I usually resist answering that question because I don't want to prescribe what everyone comes in with their own stuff. I just want, I feel emotional. I want people to enter into the film with an open heart in mind, because I've seen that when people do that, with this work for whatever reason, good things happen. And you just have to stay open. And so often I turn on the TV or I'm watching something, I'm reading something kind of with my mental arms folded. You know, I know what I feel about this. And I already have an opinion. And the hope is that folks, that this film engenders the spirit of, let me just go in and open and see what it's about and see what it brings up in me. That's my hope. I can only say that that is what happens. I think it's quite a gift to be able to create art, to tell stories, to create narrative, that really does change the way people see the world. And you have done that, Ava de Verne. It's a privilege. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks all.
唔,门肯定无法关闭。回到起点,以及我在观看这部电影时的感受,以及我自那时以来对它思考了那么多次,我想知道你希望人们如何回应,会有什么改变?你希望他们的回应是什么?通常我会抵制回答这个问题,因为我不想预设每个人都带着自己的东西。我只是希望,我感到情感上的激动,希望人们以开放的心态进入电影,因为我发现当人们这样做时,无论出于何种原因,都会发生好事。你只需要保持开放。经常我打开电视或看东西时,我脑子里总是会有自己的判断。我已经对这个有了主见。希望是,这部电影能激发人们的精神,让我去开放地看看它是关于什么,并让我看看它在我身上引发了什么。这是我的希望。我只能说,这确实发生了。我认为能够创造艺术,讲述故事,创建叙事,真正改变人们看世界的方式是一种礼物。Ava de Verne,你做到了。这是一种特权。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。非常感谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢。谢谢大家。