At a talk series, Ava DuVernay took a question from the audience asking “what would you say to young black girls who want to make films?” her answer, “Make films”.

She then pointedly holds up her iPhone and says “these are really good cameras, I have two friends who made a whole film on their iPhones”. The audience quickly caught on to Ava’s point, nothing was stopping anyone from making a film if that is what they wanted.

She says, “today we have everything we need on our laptops and our phones”, unlike Judy Dash, who Ava calls one of the fore-mothers of cinema (Daughters of Dust, 1991), who 30 years ago had a tough time getting a 35mm camera and the film for the camera, not to mention finding someone to process and edit that film.

According to Ava DuVernay you basically have a film studio in your hands so “turn the camera on your friends and just make films”. Thanks Ava!