Series

Ava DuVernay and AFFRM

A Call to Action

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.

The series is sponsored by the Black Film Center/Archive, Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, Department of American Studies, Department of Communication and Culture, Film and Media Studies program, IU Cinema and Indiana University Women’s Philanthropy Council. Special thanks to Brian Graney. All screenings are free, but ticketed.