'Naomi' Producer Ava DuVernay Attacks Elon Musk And Implies He Is A Criminal

Ava DuVernay, the producer of Naomi and director of A Wrinkle in Time, attacked Elon Musk and implied he’s a criminal while attempting to promote her documentary 13th, which was released back in 2016.

As reported by Variety’s Elsa Keslassy, DuVernay spoke with Rosalie Verda at the Marrakech Film Festival where she said “that criminality is seen as completely different than a black kid on the corner who might sell marijuana. And so, you know, the black kid is in prison for years and the criminals get reelected and make millions of dollars and sell electric cars.”

She then claimed the 13th documentary is about “the idea of who is criminal and what and who is deciding who is right and who’s wrong.”

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These comments from Ava DuVernay are no surprise. Back in 2021, DuVernay attacked Kyle Rittenhouse as a “murderer” despite him being found not guilty of murder.

She wrote on X, “John Huber and Karen Bloom, parents of murderer #KyleRittenhouse’s victim Anthony Huber: the verdict ‘sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.'”

DuVernay also reposted a post from Ibram X. Kendi, who wrote, “They are fighting to maintain white male supremacy. Which is to say, they are defending law and order. Defending their America—where white men can rule and brutalize without consequence.'”

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In June 2020, she threatened to discriminate against white men when hiring for her films. She responded to a number of me who had responded to job posting that was specifically looking for an editor based on their skin color.

DuVernay wrote, “Everyone has a right to their opinion. And we – Black producers with hiring power – have the right to not hire those who diminish us. So, to the white men in this thread… if you don’t get that job you were up for, kindly remember… bias can go both ways. This is 2020 speaking.”

In 2023, DuVernay whined that Oppenheimer was more successful than her biopic Origin.

She told Variety’s Angelique Jackson, “It’s challenging to watch a process film about a man making a bomb. [Referencing Nolan’s latest film “Oppenheimer”] He’s a man who was trying to do something and couldn’t quite describe it to anybody else, but he knew it. Isabel is a woman who knows something and can’t quite describe it, but she knows it, and she’s gonna find it. You’ll sit through three hours of his process. Will you sit through two hours of her process?”

“I think that is the only proposition,” DuVernay continued. “It’s not talking about the merit of the films. It’s talking about the very idea of following a woman through an intellectual process, an intellectual exercise. Then you make that a Black person. Then you make that a Black woman. Is it valid enough for you to go on that journey with her?”

“If you’re looking at films like She Said or Women Talking, there is a real question as to what it takes to center that voice and that narrative. We’ve been trained that that center is not usually the center. That [voice] usually is off-center or the minor character or not usually in this movie,” she continued. “I’m excited to be making work at a time where you have Nomadland, and you have She Said, and you have Women Talking, and these women are being centered in these ways. It’s about an intellectual as well as emotional pursuit, and that they are the center of the story. I hope that Origin joins that canon of films.

Origin only grossed $4.9 million at the global box office. According to Dana Feldman at Forbes, DuVernay raised $38 million from the Ford Foundation, Melinda French Gates, Laurene Powell Jobs, and Anne Wojcicki among others to fund the movie.

What do you make of DuVernay’s attack on Elon Musk?

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