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Ava DuVernay's Look At Her Past Decade Is A Powerful Reminder Of Just How Far You Can Come In 10 Years

Koh Mochizuki
Dec. 31, 2019
Rodin Eckenroth/WireImage/GettyImages

Ava DuVernay's impressive achievements in the past decade serve as a reminder that persistence and hard work can get you far.

The 47-year-old filmmaker from Long Beach, California, reflected back on her decades-long list of illustrious achievements in a Twitter thread of gratitude.

DuVernay first ventured into journalism influenced by her CBS News internship and helped cover the O.J. Simpson murder trial.

But after becoming disillusioned with journalism, she went into PR work and eventually opened her own public relations firm – The DuVernay Agency (DVAPR), in 1999.

She made her first short film called, Saturday Night Life, based on her mother's experiences in Los Angeles. The 12-minute short found its way into Showtime's Black Filmmaker Showcase when it was broadcast on February 6, 2007.

The next opportunity would catapult her career.

DuVernay wrote:

"Reflecting on the decade. In 2010, I got a call from @BET."
"They heard I'd made an indie documentary about LA hip hop the year before. They offered me a doc on women in hip hop. It was my first paying directing job. I remember crying with joy. And hope."

The indie documentary that got BET's attention was This Is the Life, her 2008 feature directorial debut chronicling the history of LA's Good Life Cafe's arts movement in which she participated as an emcee in the hip hop duo Figures of Speech.








Making Selma was inspired by her summer vacations to her father's childhood home.

He lived near Selma, Alabama, and witnessed the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.

The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song, but not for Best Director. On her omission, DuVernay expressed she was more disappointed over the fact that actor David Oyelowo, who portrayed King, did not receive a nomination for her performance in the film.




Although Disney's A Wrinkle In Time was not a breakout success at the box office, it was an important milestone for DuVernay.

She became the first black American woman to direct a film that grossed at least $100 million, domestically.

She was also the first black American woman to helm a live-action feature film with a production and marketing budget of $150 million and $250 million.



She received massive critical acclaim for creating, co-writing and directing Netflix's When They See Us.

The project is about the wrongfully convicted teenagers called the Central Park Five—now known as the Exonerated 5— surrounding 1989's Central Park Jogger Case.

The miniseries was streamed by over 23 million viewers in its first month of release and earned 16 Emmy nominations.


DuVernay closed out her thread, and 2019, by expressing much gratitude for all the supportive and inspiring people who have come into her life.

People gave the visionary much praise and shared how they have been inspired by her body of work.











DuVernay announced that she and Tom King will co-write New Gods for the DC Extended Universe, and it is aimed to be released some time in 2022.

With more projects on the horizon, the inspirational filmmaker is showing no signs of slowing down.

Here's to another decade of successes.

Get DuVernay's critically acclaimed film Selma here.