WCW :: Ava DuVernay

I’m crushin’ on Ava DuVernay this week.  Have you seen her tv show, Queen Sugar!?!? It’s my latest tv obsession. Not only is the story mesmerizing and the acting amazing; each episode has been directed by a woman of DuVernay’s choosing.  If you haven’t seen Queen Sugar, I guess I know what you’ll be doing this weekend – binge watch it on Amazon Prime or on-demand via The OWN Network.

But wait a minute, I’m getting ahead of myself.  Did you see Selma a couple of year’s ago when it hit the big screen? Ava DuVernary directed Selma, a $20 million dollar budget film, and although the movie was nominated for Best Picture she was not nominated in the Best Director category at the 2015 Academy Awards.  This year, however, her new documentary film, 13th, earned a Best Documentary Feature nomination, which also made DuVernay the first African-American female director in history to score an Oscar nod in a feature category.  Check out this article from The Guardian which tells more about the documentary, Trump’s appearance in it, and Ava’s hope, despite the dark times – all centered around the 13th Amendment.

I could go on and on about Ava Duvernay and all that she’s accomplished (it’s no surprise that the list is quite long), but one of the most unexpected tidbits about her is that in 2015 Mattel created a Barbie Doll created in her likeness that sold out almost immediately. DuVernay was one of six “Sheroes” that Mattel turned into dolls to be auctioned off to a charity of the Sheros’ choice.  But DuVernay’s fans weren’t about took to Twitter to tell Mattel they wanted to able to buy it themselves, and the company listened – the doll sold out within the hour.

I’ve gushed enough …. see for yourself, you can find 13th on Netflix and Queen Sugar on Amazon Prime.  And then tune in to the Oscars on February 26th to cheer our girl on!