I was a publicist. I decided on my Christmas vacation I was going to try to make a film.

It was a story that my mom always told that I remember being a part of, that when we were little and she was depressed the three girls that

she would grease us up with Vaseline all over make our hair pretty put us in

pretty dresses have us all matching and take us to the store and she did that at a time when she was very depressed because she knew when she walked around with her three beautiful

greased up hair slick down girls that people

would say oh my gosh your girls are so pretty oh my gosh you're doing such a good job

with those girls and it was a boost for her at a time when she really needed it.

So I made a short about that and that kind of got me hooked.

Hello friends and welcome back to the Light Watkins show where I interview

ordinary folks just like you and me who've taken extraordinary leaps of faith

in the direction of their path their purpose or what they've identified as their mission in life.

And in doing so, they've been able to positively impact and inspire the lives of many

other people who've either heard about their story or

who witnessed them in action or people who've directly benefited from their

work. And this week on the show I am re-erring my fascinating interview with award-winning film director

Ava Duverne, whose work includes the historical drama Selma, the Criminal Justice Documentary, 13th, Disney's A Wrinkle in Time, which by the way made

her the highest grossing black female director in American box office history.

Ava also created the Netflix episodic show

When They See Us based on the infamous Central Park Five case.

Her critically acclaimed TV series, Queen Sugar, just celebrated its final season, and she's currently in post-production on her next film, which is the adaptation of the award-winning Isabel Wilkerson book, Cast.

As you'll hear in our interview, Ava grew up in South Central Los Angeles.

She studied African American history at UCLA, and then she went on to work in PR for a very long time and after a very

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