{"id":652627,"date":"2026-10-12T17:16:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:16:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/652627\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T17:16:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T17:16:09","slug":"ava-duvernay-says-hollywood-is-over-talks-maga-14th-connections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/652627\/","title":{"rendered":"Ava DuVernay Says Hollywood is Over, Talks MAGA-14th Connections"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tAva DuVernay<\/a> took the spotlight in the British capital on Monday, appearing on stage for a Screen Talk during the 70th edition<\/a> of the BFI London Film Festival<\/a> (LFF), which runs through Oct. 18, to discuss her career, her latest documentary, 14th, and the state of Hollywood. The filmmaker was showered with love and adoration by appreciative fans.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked how producers could finance films like hers, she shared that crowdfunding is a key opportunity to explore. \u201cYou put your movie up there, and there are all kinds of apps and sites that allow people who are like-minded to do it,\u201d DuVernay said. \u201cBut [it\u2019s about] also just asking people, getting 20 people investing $5,000 \u2014 a nice amount of money to say something or make something. And there are ways to get that money back, whether it\u2019s through taking the film around to different film festivals or YouTubing it or selling it. This is what we\u2019re going back to.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDuVernay then highlighted how alternative ways of financing independent and other films will become more important. \u201cHollywood is over,\u201d she argued. \u201cDid you guys hear? \u2029It\u2019s done. They\u2019re buying each other, they\u2019re collapsing. It\u2019s all changed. \u2029They\u2019re selling studio lots. The idea of going to Sundance and getting a three-picture deal from Harvey Weinstein? He\u2019s in prison.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tConcluded DuVernay: \u201cEverything has changed over the last 10 years, even since I\u2019ve been making [movies and TV shows]. \u2029\u2026 It\u2019s all: What do we do now? \u2029What can we build now that\u2019s new, that serves more kinds of people and kinds of stories?\u201d And she shared that more and more, it will be about artists and audiences connecting directly without a middle man or company that brings them together.<\/p>\n

\n\tAsked what keeps her going and making political films, the creative pointed to alarm and urgency about the possible further erosions of democratic and human rights<\/a>, pointing to the fear that President Donald Trump<\/a> and ICE have caused in the United States. 14th shows \u201chow we got to a place where MAGA can be in power,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow does DuVernay stay hopeful? \u201cHistory is the key,\u201d she shared. \u201cI just think that there have been worse times than this. My ancestors and people before me, even 15 years ago, went through much tougher times.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tShe continued: \u201cThis film saved me in a lot of ways. \u2026 The rage that I feel and the fear that I feel, I was really being able to pour it into 14th every day. I only finished the film two weeks ago, and so I really don\u2019t know what I\u2019m going to do from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Emmy-, BAFTA-, Peabody- and other award-winning writer, director and producer discussed her career, including her latest doc, Netflix\u2019s 14th<\/a>, which puts Trump administration policies (including efforts to end or restrict the 14th Amendment\u2019s guarantee of birthright citizenship) in a disturbing historical context<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tShe described 14th as a look at \u201chow we got to a place where MAGA can be in power.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHow does she stay hopeful? \u201cWell, history is the key,\u201d DuVernay shared. \u201cI just think that there have been worse times than this. My ancestors and people before me, even 15 years ago, went through much tougher times.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cShe has created seven television series, including the acclaimed When They See Us and history-making Queen Sugar,\u201d the LFF noted in teasing DuVernay\u2019s appearance. \u201cIn the cinema, Ava DuVernay has proven as comfortable directing beloved family adventures, such as the magical A Wrinkle in Time, as she has searing portraits of U.S. history, which include Selma and Origin. Her documentary 13th asked who gets caged; her new film 14th<\/a>, screening in the festival, asks who gets counted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tAva DuVernay with sitting Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden while making 14th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ava DuVernay took the spotlight in the British capital on Monday, appearing on stage for a Screen Talk…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":652628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[98914,51296,274043,321,969,93,61,1042,60,1650],"class_list":["post-652627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-ava-duvernay","tag-bfi-london-film-festival","tag-bfi-london-film-festival-2026","tag-celebrities","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-international","tag-ireland","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=652627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/652627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/652628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=652627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=652627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=652627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}