Ava DuVernay tells London Film Festival: Hollywood is over

“Hollywood is over,” Ava DuVernay told the 70th BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 12, during a Screen Talk about her career and her new documentary 14th, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

The director, known for Selma, 13th and Origin, said studios are buying each other, collapsing and selling their lots. The old path is gone. She said the idea of going to Sundance, the US independent film festival, and leaving with a three-picture deal from Harvey Weinstein is finished, because Weinstein is in prison.

DuVernay said the future will be about artists and audiences connecting directly, without a middleman or company in between. For funding, she pointed to crowdfunding and gave a plain example: find 20 people willing to invest $5,000 each.

Much of the 75-minute session focused on 14th, her Netflix documentary about the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution. The film examines Trump administration policies, including efforts to end or restrict the amendment’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, the right to citizenship for almost anyone born on US soil. DuVernay said she finished the film two weeks before the London talk.

She described 14th as a film about “how we got to a place where MAGA can be in power,” referring to the Make America Great Again movement. She said fear linked to President Donald Trump and ICE, the US immigration enforcement agency, had pushed her to make political work. “This film saved me in a lot of ways,” she said, adding that she had poured rage and fear into it.

Her Netflix documentary is set for a global premiere on Dec. 4, after a run in select US cinemas, according to Variety. The BFI describes it as a probing look at the thorny history of the 14th Amendment.

DuVernay closed with a note on hope. “History is the key,” she said. There have been worse times, she said, and her ancestors went through tougher times.

The Screen Talk was scheduled for 13:30 on Oct. 12 as part of the festival’s Screen Talks programme, which also includes Andrew Scott and Brad Bird, according to the BFI. The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs through Oct. 18.