Ava DuVernay says in the USA: “Criminals will be re-elected”

Ava DuVernay said the United States is “run by criminals” while reflecting on the current reception of her Oscar-nominated documentary “13th” during an onstage conversation with Rosalie Varda at the Marrakech Film Festival.

The politically active filmmaker and activist denounced a double standard in the US justice system, saying: “That crime is seen as something completely different than a black boy on the corner who might sell marijuana.” And that, you know, is where the black boy sits in prison for years, and the criminals get re-elected, make millions of dollars, and sell electric cars.”

She said “13th” was intended to “address the idea of ​​who is criminal and what and who decides who is right and who is wrong.”

DuVernay said she thought the documentary would “end up in the back pages of Netflix and no one would see it.” When it first came out and went to number one in several countries, I think it really says something about where “We stand and that we have much more in common when it comes to prejudices and the hierarchy of people and different societies around the world.”

DuVernay also discussed the transition from film publicist to filmmaker in her 30s, saying she first realized she wanted to be a filmmaker on the set of Michael Mann’s “Collateral.”

“I was working as a publicist on that set and watched Michael Mann direct Tom Cruise and Javier Bardem in a scene. I thought, “Oh, I want to do what he does.” “I want to be Michael Mann.”

She says there was one particular moment that struck me: “Man was trying to explain something, not to an actor, but to someone else, and I thought in my head he should say it like that.”

More will follow.