*Ava DuVernay has a blunt message for anyone still waiting on the old studio system. “Hollywood is over,” she said Monday at the BFI London Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Did you guys hear? It’s done. They’re buying each other, they’re collapsing. It’s all changed. They’re selling studio lots. The idea of going to Sundance and getting a three-picture deal from Harvey Weinstein? He’s in prison.”
The “Selma” director spoke during a Screen Talk at the festival’s 70th edition, which runs through Oct. 18. Crowdfunding, she said, can work, and so can rounding up 20 people to put in $5,000. “This is what we’re going back to,” she said.
DuVernay believes the business has changed quickly. “Everything has changed over the last 10 years, even since I’ve been making [movies and TV shows],” she said. She continued, “It’s all: What do we do now? What can we build now that’s new, that serves more kinds of people and kinds of stories?” She sees a future where artists reach audiences on their own.
Scroll to continue reading
She also opened up about her new Netflix documentary, “14th,” which she wrapped just two weeks ago. “This film saved me in a lot of ways,” she said. “The rage that I feel and the fear that I feel, I was really being able to pour it into 14th every day.”
The film traces the history behind today’s fights over birthright citizenship and other Trump administration policies. DuVernay called it a look at “how we got to a place where MAGA can be in power.”
Despite the fear she sees around ICE and the White House, she remains hopeful. “History is the key,” she said. “I just think that there have been worse times than this.”
The festival neatly summed up her body of work. “Her documentary 13th asked who gets caged; her new film 14th, screening in the festival, asks who gets counted.”
MORE NEWS ON EURWEB.COM: Diddy Loses Two Months of Freedom as Federal Prison Perks Unravel
Sign up for our Free daily newsletter HERE
