Ava DuVernay
Winner of the Best Director award at Sundance in 2012, Ava DuVernay is a veritable trailblazer in the independent film world. In addition to writing, directing and producing her own films, DuVernay launched a groundbreaking film distribution venture, the African American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM), in 2011. Through a strategic alliance with a network of African American and African diasporic film festivals, AFFRM achieves wider theatrical distribution for the independent films on its carefully-curated roster than through dominant distribution channels. By challenging the terms of participation for black filmmakers in American cinema, AFFRM is, as DuVernay has noted, not so much a business as a call to action.
