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“One Person Can Make a Difference”: Ava DuVernay Remembers Film Critic Roger Ebert’s Early Support

DuVernay offers advice to aspiring filmmakers.

As Ava DuVernay considers her next steps after Selma, her first big budget feature film, she offers advice to aspiring filmmakers. “We have to work without permission. Especially as women in this industry. Who are we asking for permission to do what we want to do? That should be eradicated. You need to set a path and start walking.” DuVernay discusses her next feature film, which will be a love story and murder mystery set in New Orleans amidst the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and recalls the impact acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert had on her life, who raved about one of her first projects, I Will Follow. “He lifted that film from nowhere, and lifted me up with it,” she says.

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