Ava DuVernay was invited to screen Selma at the White House on Friday, Jan 16, for President Obama, wife Michelle, Sasha and Malia and other guests. Yesterday on her instagram (directher) Ms DuVernay posted this photo and a brief description of the evening:
Here is a small note that they will never see, but I must post it anyway. Projecting a film that I made with my comrades in the White House for the President and the First Lady – for THIS President and First Lady – was as stunning an experience as I’ve ever known. The first film to ever screen at the White House was “Birth of a Nation” or as it was previously titled “The Klansman.” That was in 1915. Last Friday, “Selma,” a film about justice and dignity, unspooled in that same place in 2015. It was a moment I don’t have to explain to most. A moment heavy with history and light with pure, pure joy all at once. President Obama’s introduction of SELMA in the presidential screening room, the quality time he and the First Lady took with us before and after, the stories he shared with my editor and cinematographer, the praise she gave our dear cast, the handshake he gave my father, the hug she gave my mother, the laughter, the smiles, the extra time they gave us all long, long, long beyond when we were scheduled to go, the warmth, the respect, it was just beyond exquisite. “I’m proud of you,” she said to me. “We’re proud of you,” he added. I’m proud too – of them, of us, of the film, of this moment in my life. Who knows what lies ahead. But what has already occurred is food and fuel and fire and freedom. To President Obama and First Lady Obama, it was a dream I never dreamt, a dream seared in my memory like a scar from a fight won. The kind you look at every now and then, and just nod and smile. I thank you. xo.
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Probably the President of the United States has enough important battles to wage without venturing into Oscar punditry.
🙂
So did the President say he liked it more than Boyhood which he previously said was his favorite movie of the year?
This means more (personally at least) than any silly Oscar would.
Now that I think about it I don’t remember seeing the Selma trailer in theaters…I just watched it on Youtube a bunch of times. I could be mistaken but maybe since it was rushed, or seemed rushed, they didn’t attach the trailer to any showings? I posted a question on my Facebook page asking why people aren’t seeing what is clearly one of the year’s best movies. I asked was it for political reasons or did people prejudge? A friend simply wrote, “Bad marketing?” I’m not sure if that was an answer in the form of a question or an actual question. I wouldn’t know if the marketing was great or not because I watch everything on Netflix or DVR and skip commercials.
If they only waited for a year and showed it at Telluride or Venice, Selma would have been a force to be reckoned with. Oh well…..
The Obamas modeling parenting behavior that will be repeated in millions of homes by the end of the year.
Spoke to a friend of mine yesterday, a “Selma Girl”, white of course. As a teen she was locked in a downtown store looking out the storefront glass at the marchers going by. She told me that the good white folk of Selma didn’t remember being that mean (as mean as portrayed n the film). Another Selma Girl said she was hearing the same thing, and added, “They were meaner.” Shame we never had truth and reconciliation.
I just posted on another board.
1) Selma, since it was rushed through by Ava to meet Oscar screening deadlines, probably should have waited until this year to release.
2) All this B*ching about racism needs to stop. It’s an important movie (like Lincoln) but it may not be the BEST movie. Someone on another board mentioned that the middle sunk and that must have been when I walked out of the movie because it wasn’t holding my attention.
If you think you got a good movie, if it takes 12 years to make and edit and do it right, then take 12 years to make it. But I think there was so much pressure to release this movie (investors? studio? Oprah?).
3) The Selma campaign seems to be following the Lincoln campaign, and IMO it won’t work. It won’t win.
Awesome
I think it’s very cool Selma was screened there 100 years after Birth of a Nation was screened there. I’ve always felt DuVernay was going to come out of this tremendously.
What Rob Y says above matters more than any number of Oscars ever could. It’s a victory wreath that doesn’t need petty accessories.
I love that a African-American woman showed a film about probably the greatest African-American man to an African-American president at the same place where “Birth of a Nation” was showed 100 years ago.
This is pretty cool. I would have loved to have been there to see the set-up, and also to see the reactions of the people in the crowd, especially the first family. I had read somewhere that President Obama had said that his favorite movie of 2014 was Boyhood, but I wonder if Selma overtook it.