Life Itself Comments

Ava DuVernay: I was, I think, I was maybe eight or nine or something, and my Aunt Denise, who was a massive film geek, who passed her film geekdom onto me, found out about these rehearsals for the Oscars, and one day he walked through. And I remember saying, "Thumbs up! Thumbs up!" screaming, screaming, and he came over. I grew up. I made this film when I was 34 years old. It was the first film I ever made. The film was about my aunt, my aunt who took me to the Oscars that day. And about losing someone that you love. And it was Ebert's review that really got to the heart of what I was trying to articulate. And just touched me so much, that I sent him the picture from the Oscars. His reply was, "We were both younger then." The next day, a blog post turned up where he wrote, in a very heartfelt way, about his own aunt who kind of gave him the gift of art and film as well. You know, I broke down crying, and it was a mess. It's dangerous as a black woman to give something that you've made from your point of view, very steeped in your identity and your personhood to a white man whose gaze is usually the exact opposite, and to say, you are the carrier of this film to the public. You're the one that's gonna dictate whether it has value. And you had a lot less fears around that with Roger. Because you knew it was someone who was gonna take it seriously, gonna come with some historical context, some cultural nuance. I mean, everybody knows Roger had a black wife. You know what I mean? You know. He's like an honorary brother. I mean, you live with a sister. That's a whole different understanding of black women, right? So maybe you watch my film differently.