The past year has seen several barriers busted open in Hollywood: Patty Jenkins made history as the highest-paid female director, Dee Rees became the first black woman nominated for the best adapted screenplay Oscar, and Ryan Coogler’s “Black Panther” smashed box office records and became the highest-grossing film from a black director. However, as Ava DuVernay — the first black woman to helm a $100 million feature — pointed out during a “What She Said” conversation at The W Hotel, these successes do not mean that Hollywood has solved its massive inclusion problem.
“There are some moments that are happening,” the “Selma” director observed, according to the LA Times. “But I’m an anomaly, Ryan Coogler is an anomaly, Barry Jenkins [director of “Moonlight”] is an anomaly, and Dee Rees is an anomaly. When you can name us all on two hands… that ain’t change.”
DuVernay, Rees, Coogler, and Barry Jenkins have made tremendous strides in their careers and have been in the spotlight recently, but as DuVernay said, they are exceptions, not the rule. Dr. Stacy L. Smith’s latest “Inclusion in the Director’s Chair?” report made it very clear that the overwhelming majority of directors are still white men. As the research concluded, “for female, Black, and Asian directors, there has been no meaningful change in over a decade and the doors to Hollywood remain mostly closed.”
To use DuVernay’s own words, the entertainment industry is “a broken system,” and one that can’t and won’t be fixed by any single trailblazing film — even if it is awesome as “Wonder Woman” or “Black Panther.” “Until that system is fertile ground for real growth, then we will just kind of sit on top of it as sparkly, shiny things for people to feel good,” DuVernay stated.
The “13th” helmer has spoken candidly about Hollywood’s exclusionary hiring practices in the past, DuVernay is doing her part to create that fertile ground via the inclusion fund she launched with Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and “The Lego Movie” producer Dan Lin.
DuVernay created OWN family drama “Queen Sugar,” which concluded its second season in November. The series has been renewed for Season 3 but a premiere date hasn’t been announced yet. DuVernay’s highly anticipated adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s “A Wrinkle in Time” opens March 9.