Ava DuVernay talks to Ellen DeGeneres about George Floyd, police brutality, and more on Monday’s “Ellen” show.
DuVernay, who directed “13th”, the Oscar-nominated documentary about the criminalization of African-Americans in the U.S., tells DeGeneres how these are “important times” in history.
She also shares why the video of Floyd’s murder brought her to her knees and gave her the startling realization that the officers who commit brutal acts usually remain invisible and recede into society.
DuVernay shares, “These are times that I don’t even describe as tough times, I describe them as important times. For me, I’m unfortunately desensitized to so many of the racist, violent images because I have to use them so much in my work.
“So it was really shocking to me why the George Floyd video just brought me to my knees. I think, as I interrogated, I was shocked at the reasons, because we actually watched both parties’ faces perfectly framed.
“It made me realize that we have let police officers who abuse off the hook, by allowing them to recede into society and disappear,” she continues. “We know the names of Black victims, but we never know who killed them.”
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DuVernay also announces her new initiative LEAP, the Law Enforcement Accountability Project, which aims to change the narrative around police abuse, misconduct, and murder of Black people across all genres of art and will hold them accountable for their actions.
Please visit Black Lives Matter for more information on how you can help.
