Director and Compton Girl Ava DuVernay Talks Straight Outta Compton in Emotional Twitter Essay
Powerhouse director, Ava DuVernay, grew up in Compton in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was there at the dawn of N.W.A as they began a journey that would change and define hip-hop. Now, she’s directed an Academy Award-nominated film in Selma, and N.W.A. is the subject of a biopic directed by F. Gary Gray called Straight Outta Compton, which dominated the box office this weekend, breaking $60 Million.
DuVernay was among those watching the film this weekend and, in an impassioned series of tweets that practically qualify as an essay, praised the film’s accuracy and quality while also commenting on the more problematic elements of hip-hop culture. Here are those tweets in their entirety. Bask in the hip-hop love:
I saw @ComptonMovie last night w/ friends at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza in South Central with a beautiful, alive, invested audience.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
Invested because many of them, like me, were there. Teens at the very time and in the very place depicted on screen. It had better be right. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
And damn, they got it right. Under @FGaryGray‘s brilliant direction + @MattyLibatique‘s gorgeous cinematography, I was transported back.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I saw the militarized Batterrams again. Rolling up our streets like invaders in a war. My friend asked, “Is that real?” Yep. That happened. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I saw the cavalier way that women were treated in hip hop spaces early on. Window dressing at most. Disposable at worst. Yep, that happened.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I was in the street during the Rodney King Uprising. After that unjust verdict. Feeling anger. And community. And fire. And love. Happened. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I remember the truce. So when that shot of red and blue bandanas tied together flashed on screen? Wild applause in my theater. It happened.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
The music of my youth and how it came to be and why it was what it was. We rapped along, clapped, laughed, cried. For all that has happened. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
All the stifling of our voices as young black people in that place at that time while a war was going on against us. @FGaryGray captured it.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
He captured the plight of the black artist in general, once consumed by systems and structures not made for them. The struggle is real. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
To be a woman who loves hip hop at times is to be in love with your abuser. Because the music was and is that. And yet the culture is ours.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
From depictions of the origins of “Bye Felicia” to watching Cube bring his wife Kim to business meetings. That’s hip hop. A curious thing. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
But for all the terrific acting, solid production design, swoon-worthy cinematography and fab costumes + hair, one sequence brought a tear.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I leaned forward in my seat and put my hands to my face and gasped. As did many around me. Someone shouted, “HELL YEAH!” This sequence… — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
Sunday on the ‘Shaw. I can’t tell you what it was, what it felt like. You had to be there. @FGaryGray gets you as close as you’ll ever get.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
Hundreds of black young people cruisin’ down Crenshaw. The raw energy. The cars. The brothers and sisters. The majesty of it all. A tear. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
It was maybe a one-minute sequence in the film but it all came rushing back. This film did that for me on multiple levels. It’s fantastic.
— Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
Congratulations to @FGaryGray and all involved. Another classic now under his belt. Your craft and care is on full display. Bravo, brother. — Ava DuVernay (@AVAETC) August 16, 2015
I’m glad that DuVernay brought up the weirdness involved in being a woman who loves hip-hop. I, too, grew up with hip-hop, and love it – even as I can see its flaws. But that’s the thing with anything you love, right? That’s what love is – loving something or someone completely. Knowing its flaws as well as its strengths. It’s easy to love something perfect. Loving something flawed, as we all are, is a much more difficult task. I’m looking forward to seeing this love-letter to N.W.A, and I’m thrilled that there are talented filmmakers like DuVernay and like F. Gary Gray out there telling the stories of the important contributions of black people to our history. There need to be more filmmakers like this.
And personally, I’d LOVE to see a DuVernay film set during the same time as Straight Outta Compton, but told from a female perspective. Maybe the story of a DuVernay-like young hip-hop fan watching this unfold in her hometown? Just sayin’. I’d pay money for that.
(via Vulture)
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