Recognizing Ms. Ava Duvernay: Art As A Catalyst for Change

Floor Speech

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Mr. MFUME. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor a trailblazing woman who fearlessly creates works of art that serve as a compelling force for change.

Award-winning filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer Ava DuVernay grew up in the communities of Lynwood and Compton, in California, and spent her summers visiting her father's home state of Alabama. It was in Alabama that DuVernay found her passion for film through cherished time spent with her aunt, Denise Sexton.

Setting out into the film industry first as a film marketer, Ava was on set with some of the world's most renowned filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, Michael Mann, Clint Eastwood, Raoul Peck and Gurinder Chadha. Influenced by these masters of their craft, DuVernay shifted roles and began working behind the camera.

In 2008, Ava DuVernay released her first documentary, This Is the Life, about the rise of alternative hip hop in 1990s Los Angeles. Then, in 2010, she debuted her first narrative feature film, I Will Follow, which showed a woman's heartache after the passing of a dear relative. DuVernay's aunt, Denise Sexton, who nurtured her love for film and tragically passed away from breast cancer in 2003, was the inspiration for the film.

DuVernay's second feature film, Middle of Nowhere, premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the award for Best Direction. This film elevates the stories of women of color whose lives are unsettled when a spouse becomes incarcerated.

Ava DuVernay's 2014 film Selma followed the civil rights march shepherded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that resulted in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act. When developing this film, DuVernay drew from her father's direct recollection of witnessing this historic moment, as civil rights legends advanced across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama. For Selma, Ava became the first African American woman nominated for best director at the Golden Globes.

DuVernay's Oscar-nominated documentary 13th put a spotlight on racial prejudice in the United States by dissecting the American prison system and its racial inequalities. 13th would take home four of the nine Emmy awards it was nominated for and go on to collect numerous additional accolades. She has since shifted her focus back to feature films and television, with a few of her noteworthy works to date being Queen Sugar, A Wrinkle in Time, and Origin.

As an artist, Ava DuVernay creates both bravely and unapologetically, tackling issues that are unique to her experience as an African American woman, but that still resonate with people from all backgrounds. Her work is important and will doubtless be viewed as one of the premier artistic vehicles for social change in the modern era.

I had the distinct pleasure of welcoming Ava DuVernay to Capitol Hill when she visited Washington, D.C. in 2024. Joined by Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and Congresswomen Joyce Beatty and Ayanna Pressley, we were all struck by her poise, her genius, and her passion for artistry and activism.

Mr. Speaker, the impact of Ava DuVernay's artistry extends far beyond her portfolio. Rather, it is the voices that may otherwise have gone unheard and the generations of filmmakers who she has inspired that will be credited as her most powerful and enduring legacy.

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