Ava DuVernay launches Array 101, an online education platform to dig deeper into her films’ social themes

by Fast Company

May 28, 2020

The award-winning filmmaker is creating an educational resource to help unpack the important issues at the heart of her projects, starting with “When They See Us.”

Much of Ava DuVernay’s career can be defined by her skillful and varied portraits of the black experience.

From her retelling of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s march to Montgomery, Alabama, in Selma, to unpacking the prison industrial complex in 13th, to her searing biopic of the Exonerated Five in When They See Us, DuVernay’s socially conscious work has created a good problem to have.

“I can’t tell you the thousands of questions I get after every project with people asking, ‘What do I do next? What’s the next step?’” DuVernay says.

DuVernay searched for an organization that combined entertainment and socially conscious education with whom she could partner.

Unable to find exactly what she was looking for, she decided to create her own initiative.

Through her media company and arts collective Array, DuVernay is launching Array 101, an online education platform of supplemental learning guides to Array’s films and TV series.