Hollywood Black: Ava DuVernay Breaks Down the Role Awards Play in Hollywood (Exclusive)

In a new clip from the finale of Hollywood Black, DuVernay explains the importance of being celebrated by the establishment.

By Russ Burlingame

MGM+ has provided ComicBook with an exclusive clip from the upcoming finale to Hollywood Black. The miniseries, based on the book of the same name by historian Donald Bogle, sees creator Justin Simien sit down with some of Hollywood's biggest luminaries to discuss the issues that have historically faced creators of color in Hollywood, how Black Hollywood has historically overcome those obstacles, and how they're trying to adapt to the new challenges of modern Hollywood. The series features interviews with Ryan Coogler (Creed), Ava DuVernay (Selma), LaKeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You), Forest Whitaker (Ghost Dog), and more.

The clip above features part of DuVernay's interview, in which she breaks down the importance of awards to Black filmmakers in terms of credibility and acceptance. 

"Their light is a spotlight on the work," DuVernay says in the clip above. "To be an Academy Award nominee for 13th goes in front of my name. There's no place where I go, where I'm not introduced as that. It's not everything, but you cannot say it doesn't matter. It absolutely matters; it fits into the metrics and the economics of the business that we're in. We as the artists, we're conditioned to want that thing, and knowing more about our history as Black cinematic artists, as filmmakers, and understanding the grandeur and the grace of a Charles Lane, of a Julie Dash, the list is might, and it has nothing to do with that exterior achievement, and the more that conversations like this can happen, it empowers us to be able to have our own cinematic history that sits separate and apart from what anyone else tells us is excellent, from what anyone else determines is achievement, but we have to know it first. We have to know that it existed, and we have to know what's going on."

"It isn't a marketplace that we necessarily have any control over, really, so you kind of have to find ways to work inside the things that the market dictates," Simien told ComicBook. "There's always an appetite for biopics. It's sort of like an IP, in that there's a person that existed, that people have a familiarity with, so people feel a little more confident financing a biopic than they do an original story."

Here's the official synopsis for the series: "Inspired by the book from historian Donald Bogle, Hollywood Black, directed by Justin Simien, chronicles the history of cinema, but from a radically Black perspective. By unearthing personal stories from actors, writers, directors, and producers who fought for their place on the page, behind the camera and on the screen, the series provides a critical reexamination of a quintessentially American story—in brilliant color."

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Directed by Justin Simien, Hollywood Black stars Justin Simien, W. Kamau Bell, Steven Caple, Jr., Ryan Coogler, Ava DuVernay, Gina Prince-Bythewood, Issa Rae, LaKeith Stanfield, Gabrielle Union, Lena Waithe, Forest Whitaker, and more. The series is executive produced by Culture Machine's Justin Simien and Kyle Laursen; Significant Productions' Forest Whitaker and Nina Yang Bongiovi; RadicalMedia's Dave Sirulnick, Stacey Reiss, and Jon Kamen; Jeffrey Swartz; and Shayla Harris, who also serves as showrunner.

Hollywood Black wraps up on September 1 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on MGM+.

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