Ava DuVernay is set to premiere a new short film on OWN. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker will debut “August 28th: A Day in the Life of a People” on the network behind her TV series, “Queen Sugar.” The star-studded cast of the short includes Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, and Regina King, Shadow and Act reports.
Slated to premiere tomorrow, August 28, the project is a 22-minute scripted film that uses “both documentary and narrative techniques to take viewers to six historical moments through history that all occurred on August 28,” the source details.
The short “traverses a century of black progress, protest, passion, and perseverance of African-American people,” according to its official synopsis. “The project gives historical perspective within the creative framework of one date that has had a profound effect on America including: the passing of The Slavery Abolition Act on August 28, 1833, the lynching of Emmett Till on August 28, 1955, the first radio airplay from Motown Records on August 28, 1961 with The Marvelettes “Please Mr Postman,” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech during the massive March on Washington on August 28, 1963, Hurricane Katrina making its tragic landfall on August 28, 2005, and then-Senator Barack Obama’s acceptance of the Democratic nomination for the presidency on August 28, 2008.”
DuVernay’s Martin Luther King Jr.-inspired drama “Selma” was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar in 2015. The director’s Netflix doc tracing the connection between mass incarceration and slavery, “13th,” earned a nod for Best Documentary Feature in 2017.
The “Wrinkle in Time” helmer recently signed an open letter adding the dramatic pay gap between male and female production workers. She’s among over 3,000 people who signed the ACLU-supported petition, which Refinery29 explains “was prompted by a study commissioned by Local 871, an organization supporting on-set and behind the scenes Hollywood workers, that found those in production fields commonly populated by women, such as script supervisors, production coordinators, and art department coordinators, receive less pay than those in similar but male-heavy fields like assistant directors and location managers.”
The study also found that “sexual harassment and gender discrimination are more likely to be experienced in female-dominated professions. Fifty-two percent of the organization’s female workers said they experienced or witnessed workplace sexual harassment over the past three years. This, the letter said, helps highlight the ‘deep connection’ between the gender pay gap and forms of workplace injustice.”
DuVernay’s upcoming projects include “The New Gods,” a DC Comics adaptation about a group of deities who come into existence after the gods of classic mythology are killed, a Netflix miniseries about the Central Park Five, and a TV adaptation of Octavia Butler’s “Dawn.”
“Queen Sugar” recently concluded its third season on OWN. Every episode of the Louisiana-set family drama has been directed by a woman.
Check out a trailer for “August 28th” below.
