After making history earlier this year at the annual Sundance Film Festival by becoming the first African American women to win the award for best director, Ava DuVernay is set to release her latest project, “Middle Of Nowhere,” in theaters this October.
Backed by Participant Media, the independent filmmaker strives to promote all of her projects through her grassroots association, AFFRM (African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement).
"This is a model that I'm hoping other niche communities and people that are gathering and congregating around all kinds of films can learn to do," she explained to the Huffington Post last December. "And it's basically saying, 'don't wait for permission; don't look to this corporate entity to say your film was good enough to put out.' There are ways for us now to do it ourselves as filmmakers. All of those traditional barriers have been broken down by technology and just with hard work, elbow grease, and passion."
The award-winning drama, which is DuVernay’s second full-length feature, tells the story of a medical student who delays her career when her husband is forced to serve a 8 year prison bid.
"We really are doing something that the studio and Hollywood system says can't be done," she said. "Regular people distributing films, regular people deciding the fate of our films. Regular people saying, 'You know what, maybe Hollywood doesn't have all the answers as to what we want to see or what we can do.”
Check out the trailer for “Middle Of Nowhere,” starring Emayatzy Corinealdi, David Oyelowo, and Omari Hardwick below.