WSJ Article about Ava DuVernay / ‘Middle of Nowhere’

A Movie Publicist Takes Her Seat in the Director’s Chair

When making her directorial debut “Middle of Nowhere,” independent filmmaker Ava DuVernay didn’t have the same anxiety about finding distribution that many of her colleagues did.

Ms. DuVernay, in her prior career as a film publicist and marketer, had already seen how difficult it was to distribute an independent film, let alone one that was geared towards African-American audiences, like her film was. Therefore to give black voices — including her own — a platform, she created her own distribution company, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM).

Together with Participant Media, AFFRM officially picked up the rights to “Middle of Nowhere” earlier this year during the Sundance Film Festival and plans to debut the film nationwide on Oct. 12. The drama, which stars Emayatzy Corinealdi as a young woman waiting for her husband to be released from prison, also screens this week at the Toronto International Film Festival.