"Every filmmaker imbues a movie with their own point of view... I wasn't interested in making a white-savior movie; I was interested in making a movie centered on the people of Selma. You have to bring in some context for what it was like to live in the racial terrorism that was going on in the deep south at that time. The four little girls have to be there, and then you have to bring in the women. So I started adding women...You talk to most people about King now and they only know "I Have a Dream," and that he believed in peace and then he died. Really? That's what he's been reduced to? And we've allowed it to happen. And if there is anything that Selma does, it reinvigorates the narrative around him to be more full-bodied and more truthful about what his tactics were."
http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/features/ava-duvernay-on-making-selma-20150105
This interview is really great - although, if you haven't seen the movie yet, don't read past the picture of Oprah because there are a few spoilers. I have so much respect for Ava Duverney, that movie was so well crafted and so thoughtful and I want to see what she will do next and I want to see Selma again.
I've had this moment with a few movies recently where I realize that it's a really different experience to watch something that was made from your perspective, with an implicit awareness of you, than it is to watch a movie made by (and implicitly for) a white/male audience. It's a different thing to watch a movie where black people aren't primarily accent pieces cast against mostly white surroundings.
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