I would like to share with you an interview I conducted with Ava Duvernay a few years ago when her film I Will Follow premiered at the North Carolina Black Film Festival in Wilmington, NC. I ran a film blog called NCIndieSeen I will apologize in advance for the poor audio quality. This impromptu interview was actually recorded on my smartphone. However, below is a transcript of what was said during the interview.
Since our interview, Ava has become the first Black female to win the Best Director award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and she most recently directed an episode of the hit TV show Scandal!
NCIndieSeen: Tell us a little bit about the film "I Will Follow"
Ava: "I Will Follow" is really about a woman at a crossroads. The main character name is Maye and she's a makeup artist in New York City. She has a hot career and a hot boyfriend played by Blair Underwood. Then tragedy strikes in her family and she has to go home and take care of some things and in the process is struggling to keep her balance and keep her identity and so the film explores how to maintain yourself amidst personal chaos.
NCIndieSeen: Where was it shot and how long did it take for production on that?
Ava: 15 days. In Topanga Canyon, CA. I was really interested in Topanga its a canyon community in California. I'm from California and usually when you wanna see black people on screen they're not against greenery unless they're in the South and its a period piece. So I was really interested in seeing contemporary black people in a canyon setting which happens to not really have been captured on screen. So in moments in the film you see her walking in the street its greenery and that where they live, which I think that it's a little different from how we usually see ourselves in an urban setting or on the mean streets.
NCIndieSeen: How did you go about casting in this film?
Ava: I met the casting director Aisha Coley who actually cast Secret Life of Bees and Akeelah and The Bee and did alot of work with Spike Lee and so she was agreed to work with me early on and some of it was Aisha Coley auditioning in meetings and some of it was personal relationships like Blair Underwood is a good friend and his part was written with him in mind with hopes he would come out for a couple of days and do it. It was a mixuture of relationships and standard casting.
NCIndieSeen: What advice would you give to independent filmmakers trying to break out in the film industry and start their own feature films?
Ava: Well that's a huge question there are so many things to do. In general you have to have a passion for what you are doing for alot of folks when they are thinking about their first feature they're thinking about ok what will sell in the studios or what's in right now or other trends and I think the best films come from someone's heart and so you can tell when something is being done just to be done and something that means something to someone the film just feel different to the audience, and those that have some kind of connection are the most successful with audiences and stand the test of time I think. So I would just encourage people to dig deep and bare their soul and make something that's important to them, you may not get another chance.
