Ava DuVernay, films featured in IU Cinema lecture series

Ava DuVernay, winner of the Best Director Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, will give a lecture at 3 p.m. Friday at IU Cinema as part of the Jorgensen Guest Filmmaker Lecture Series.

Several of DuVernay’s films will also be screened throughout the week as part of her lecture.

One of her works, “Venus Vs.,” explores tennis champion Venus Williams’ influence in advocating equal pay for both men and women players. It will play at 7 p.m. Thursday at IU Cinema.

Another film, Sundance winner “Middle of Nowhere,” focuses on the repercussions of the prison-industrial complex affecting black communities. It will show at 6:30 p.m. Friday.

“I Will Follow,” her narrative feature debut centered around moving forward after the loss of a loved one, will be shown Friday at 9:30 p.m. This film earned the approval from film critic Roger Ebert.

“In one way or another, every emotion in this wonderful independent film is one I’ve experienced myself,” Ebert said in 2011 on his blog.

Not only has DuVernay filmed critically-acclaimed documentaries, but she also founded the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement in 2011, which provides black independent filmmakers with “collaborative, simultaneous, theatrical distribution in multiple markets,” according to its website.

In a 2012 New York Times article, DuVernay spoke of this new form of distribution for black independent films and seeking private funding for projects.

“It’s not about knocking on closed doors. It’s about building our own house and having our own door,” she said in the article by Carrie Rickey.

But even before the awards and AFFRM, DuVernay spent 14 years working as a publicist and film marketer, which led to the 1999 founding of DVA Media + Marketing, providing strategic blueprints for more than 120 television campaigns and films for directing legends such as Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood.

Follow reporter Olivia Williams on Twitter @obwillia.