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Today we spend the hour with Ava DuVernay, the director of the acclaimed new civil rights film "Selma," which tells the story of the campaign led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to draw the nation’s attention to the struggle for equal voting rights by marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March of 1965. While the film has been nominated for an Oscar for best picture, to the shock of many, DuVernay was not nominated. She would have made history as the first African-American woman nominated for best director. At the Sundance Film Festival, DuVernay joins us to discuss the making of the film and the Academy Award nominations. "The question is why was 'Selma' the only film that was in the running with people of color for the award?" she asks.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, where the Sundance Film Festival is underway. Today we spend the hour with one of the stars of the film world, Ava DuVernay, the director of the acclaimed new civil rights film, Selma. It tells the story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s campaign to draw the nation's attention to the struggle for equal voting rights by marching from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, in March of 1965, 50 years ago. But it also highlights the young activists of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, as well as Malcolm X coming to meet with Dr. King’s wife, Coretta, while King is in jail. The film has also drawn controversy because of its depiction of President Johnson as a reluctant, even obstructionist, politician who had the FBI monitor and harass King. I sat down with Ava DuVernay for the hour, but we began with the trailer of Selma.
J. EDGAR HOOVER: [played by Dylan Baker] He’s got supporters—Detroit, New York, Los Angeles—inciting large-scale arrests and sympathy marches. "
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: [played by Tom Wilkinson] I am very aware of that, Mr. Hoover.
J. EDGAR HOOVER: What I do know is he’s nonviolent. What I need to know right now: What’s Martin Luther King about to do next?
PRESIDENT’S SECRETARY: [played by Haviland Stillwell] Mr. President, Dr. King is here.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: [played by David Oyelowo] President, in the South, there have been thousands of racially motivated murders. We need your help.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: Dr. King, this thing is just going to have to wait.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: It cannot wait.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: You’ve got one big issue; I’ve got a hundred one.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Selma it is.
DIANE NASH: [played by Tessa Thompson] Here is the next great battle.
JAMES BEVEL: [played by Common] Selma’s the place, and they’re ready.
UNIDENTIFIED: Dr. King!
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: I tell you, that white boy can hit.
GOV. GEORGE WALLACE: [played by Tim Roth] We will not tolerate agitators attempting to orchestrate a disturbance in this state.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: It is unacceptable that they use their power to keep us voiceless. Those that have gone before us say, "No more."
CORETTA SCOTT KING: People actually say they’re going to kill our children. They are trying to get inside of your head.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: What happens when a man stands up and says, "Enough is enough"?
RALPH ABERNATHY: [played by Colman Domingo] We build the path, as we came—rock by rock.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: This cell is probably bugged.
RALPH ABERNATHY: It probably is.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: We must march. We must stand up.
PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: You march those people into rural Alabama, it’s going to be open season.
REV. HOSEA WILLIAMS: [played by Wendell Pierce] May I have a word?
MAJOR JOHN CLOUD: [played by Michael Papajohn] There’s no word to be had.
UNIDENTIFIED: There are 70 million people watching. These pictures are going around the world.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: We must make a massive demonstration.
White, black and otherwise, come to Selma.
JAMES REEB: [played by Jeremy Strong] I heard about the attack of innocent people. I couldn’t just stand by.
GOV. GEORGE WALLACE: Looks like an army out there.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Mine eyes have seen the glory! Glory, glory, hallelujah!
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: What happens when a man stands up and says, "Enough is enough"?
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for Selma. It’s been nominated for an Academy Award for best film in 2014. We’re joined right now by Ava DuVernay, the film’s director. Welcome to Democracy Now!
AVA DUVERNAY: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Congratulations on the nomination.
AVA DUVERNAY: Thank you. If the nomination gets me here sitting here with you, then hooray. Love the show, love you. Thank you so much for having me.
AMY GOODMAN: And congratulations for the Golden Globes.
AVA DUVERNAY: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: But you didn’t get nominated, and there are a lot of people all over this country who have seen this film and are shocked that you weren’t nominated for best director. Your thoughts on this?
AVA DUVERNAY: You know, I didn’t expect to be. I actually knew that it wasn’t going to happen. I’ve been telling people since October; no one listened to me. I’m serious. Old interviews that are coming out now, friends who said, "Yeah, you did say that." I just knew it wasn’t going to be the case, so I never took it into my heart, so it never—didn’t really bother me. I was more bothered by David not being nominated. That hurt my feelings, because I know what he—you know, the beautiful performance. But it’s a—
AMY GOODMAN: David Oyelowo.
AVA DUVERNAY: David Oyelowo, the star of the film who plays Dr. King. But the bottom line is, the film was chosen in some categories—best picture, best song were nominated—and wasn’t chosen in others. And, you know—
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Common and John Legend.
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s Common and John Legend for the song, for "Glory," and best picture, which is nothing to sneeze at. Nothing to sneeze at. So, you know.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you know this hashtag, the Twitter hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, that began trending soon after the nominees were announced, so many people shocked that your name wasn’t among them, and David’s, as well—
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —pointing out that a 2012 survey conducted by the Los Angeles Times found Oscar voters are 94 percent white, 76 percent male, and the average age 63 years old. Do you think that has anything to do with it?
AVA DUVERNAY: You know, I think—I think, you know, folks see films, see history, see art, see life through their own lens. And when there’s a consensus that has to be made by a certain group, you know, the consensus is most likely going to be through a specific lens. And unless there’s diversity amongst the people that are trying to come to the consensus, then, you know, there will be a lack of diversity in what the consensus is, if that makes sense. So, I think, you know, being here at Sundance is a great example of a group, of an organization that’s made a commitment to diversity, that have considered diversity as more than a talking point, but an action item. You know, I won best director here in 2012, but I was the first black person to do so. So it was a long time coming in that being—you know, that door being opened.
AMY GOODMAN: That was for Middle of Nowhere.
AVA DUVERNAY: That was for Middle of Nowhere. But there’s been a real articulated kind of mission by the institute, by the Sundance Institute, to say we—"Regardless of awards, we are going to be a platform, we are going to be a space, for voices of all kinds, all over the world." And they’ve articulated that mission, and they’ve executed, and they’re continuing to execute. And so, I think when you talk about the Academy or you talk about just this industry in general, the studios, everyone needs to, if we really care about it, not just say we care about it, but actually work towards it. And so, perhaps all of the hoopla this year will trigger some action. But maybe not. I don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: No person of color not only for best director, no person of color, as you point out, for best actor, best actress, best supporting actress, best supporting actor.
AVA DUVERNAY: This year.
AMY GOODMAN: This year.
AVA DUVERNAY: This year. In past years we’ve had it. But the bottom line is, I don’t think the question is so much about the awards; the question is: Why was Selma the only film that was even in the running with people of color for the award? You know what I mean? I mean, why are there not—not just black, brown people? You know what I mean? Asian people, indigenous people, representations that are more than just one voice, just one face, just one gaze? So, for me, it’s much less about the awards and the accolades, because, literally, next year no one cares. Right? I can’t even tell you who won the award for whatever three years ago. I don’t know.
AMY GOODMAN: What are the obstacles in the way?
AVA DUVERNAY: The obstacle, it is systemic. It’s systemic. It’s a system that’s been set up in a certain way. Times have changed, ideas have matured, and the system might not have caught up with that or stayed up with that. But you have very conscious people, very, you know, liberal people, very progressive people within the Academy. I’m a member. I was invited a couple of years ago. My black cinematographer, Bradford Young, was invited this year. There’s an attempt, but, you know, like I said, it needs to be articulated and followed up on. I think the thing that is challenging is when people talk about it should happen, but then there’s no follow up to that. So the hope is, with Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who’s the new president of the Academy, and some other people there who are really intentional about wanting to see just an opening up—it’s not about Selma. Maybe people just didn’t like it. You know what I mean? Maybe they just didn’t like it. But it’s really more about Selma shouldn’t have been the only hope for faces of color in this kind of celebration of film [inaudible].
AMY GOODMAN: Well, you’re clearly very self-deprecating, because Selma has been received with critical acclaim. And speaking of obstacles, let’s go back 50 years—
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, right.
AMY GOODMAN: —to the man and the movement—
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: —the many people that you portray in Selma, which isn’t a documentary—
AVA DUVERNAY: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: —a feature film, taking on a massive obstacle in the United States—
AVA DUVERNAY: Right, right.
AMY GOODMAN: —the fact that African Americans were not voting, could not vote.
AVA DUVERNAY: Right, right.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us the story of Selma.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, let me tell you this: I don’t feel like I’m self-deprecating. I feel like I stand in the shadow of giants, real, bold, brave Americans of color, and otherwise, all kinds of people, who marched for something that was really important. I mean, this, when we get to the statues and patting each other on the back, isn’t as important as the fact that the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act is violent and ongoing and very much an emergency. So, in working with Selma and thinking about Selma and thinking about all of the—what it represents, even now, with policing and police aggression in our communities, I just can’t get worked up about the other thing. So, that’s that piece.
But Selma is a story of justice and dignity. It’s about these everyday people. That’s what I loved about it, that it wasn’t called King, that when I came onto the project it was called Selma. It’s about the power of the people. It’s about voices risen and amplified through this one man. But one of the things I loved about our approach to Selma was that, you know, we didn’t show King in isolation, which I think has been so much a part of this really homogenized view of him, which I think he would have hated, because it was very much always trying to amplify the people around him. He was always very deferential to his comrades, you know, fellow soldiers in the fight. And so I think he would be—and because at the time he was bothered by the fact that he was the one lifted up.
AMY GOODMAN: And why did you choose to take this on?
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, my—it’s King. You know what I mean? It’s King. It’s King. I’ve said in past interviews in previous years, "Why do we always have to see black people in hindsight? Why are the Hollywood movies always historical? What about the contemporary image of black people?" which is something that I’m very activist about. But then someone brings you King, a King story, and it’s like, "OK." You know what I mean? I mean, it had not been done in 50 years. There’s been no major motion picture released by a studio, no independent motion picture, in theaters, with King at the center, in the 50 years since these events happened, when we have biopics on all kinds of ridiculous people. And nothing on King? No cinematic representation that’s meaningful and centered. So, it was just something I couldn’t pass up. And my father is from Lowndes County, Alabama, so—that’s the county right between Selma and Montgomery where they walked through. And he’s from that place, and he watched the march pass at 11 years old. So it’s part of my family history.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s Ava DuVernay, director of Selma. Her film has just been nominated for an Oscar for best film. Coming up, I ask the director about the controversy around Selma’s portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson and his relationship with Dr. King. The film depicts President Johnson as a reluctant, even obstructionist, politician who had the FBI monitor and harass King. We also talk with Ava DuVernay about her plans for her next film. All that and more is coming up.
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In our extended interview with "Selma" director Ava DuVernay, we broadcast excerpts from her Oscar-nominated film, which highlights both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s leadership in Selma, as well as the grassroots civil rights movement’s role in pushing President Lyndon Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act, and Coretta Scott King’s secret meeting with Malcolm X while King was in jail. DuVernay also explains her approach to showing police and vigilante aggression used against activists in the movement for civil and voting rights. "There is so much violence in this era that we’re talking about, but I wanted the violence to be something that was reverential to the lives lost … these black lives that mattered," DuVernay says.
Image Credit: SelmaMovie.com
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman. We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, from the Sundance Film Festival. We’re broadcasting from Park City TV. Today we spend the hour with Ava DuVernay, director of Selma. The film begins with the death of four young girls: Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins. They died on September 15, 1963, killed when the Ku Klux Klan bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The bombing came less than a month after the March on Washington. I asked Ava DuVernay why she chose to begin Selma with this devastating attack.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, for me, our approach to violence in the film was, you know, one that we considered very carefully. I’m an independent filmmaker, so this was my first film. My last film was $200,000; this is a $20 million film. And there’s so much violence in this era that we’re talking about, but I wanted the violence to be something that was very reverential and respectful to the life lost. And so, in trying to figure out how we brought people into the story and how we established a reverence for these black lives that mattered at that time, that we approached it in a way that got you right at the top. And the four little girls really was the catalyst for so much of what happened in Selma, that very visceral shaking of the leaders of the civil rights movement to do something off the beaten path, out of the box, was the push toward Selma. So it was a trigger. But then also, just in the way that we designed those shots, and with real intention to get you stuck in your seat and make you watch this thing, in a way that we don’t really watch historical dramas, kind of at a distance, you know, when we see these things, it’s got—
AMY GOODMAN: Now, we meet these little girls talking—
AVA DUVERNAY: We meet the—you hear them speaking. You have respect for their life. You know that they should—there should have been more conversations like that and more growth and a womanhood and all that follows. And so, to have that snuffed out was, you know, a salute to them, but also just to really invite people to be with us in the story, be with them. Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And then you take us on the journey to Selma. Dr. King, hearing from Ralph Abernathy and Diane Nash—tell us who Diane Nash was, and Ralph Abernathy.
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh, Diane Nash deserves her own film. Diane Nash is a freedom fighter who is still alive and kicking. She was one of the leaders of the desegregation of Nashville, basically. She was a student at Fisk University who was one of the founding members of SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. And she, along with C.T. Vivian and John Lewis and Jim Bevel, did amazing work around the Freedom Rides. Stanley Nelson, a beautiful documentarian, one of our best, did a gorgeous documentary about the Freedom Rides, as most of your viewers will know. And then, anyway, so she became aligned from SNCC to the SCLC and started to work with King very closely. But it was really her idea, her and James Bevel’s idea, to really launch a full-scale voting rights campaign in Selma on the invitation of Amelia Boynton.
AMY GOODMAN: So they’re driving in a car for the first time to Selma.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, in the scene, Ralph Abernathy, Diane Nash, Andrew Young and James Orange are driving with Dr. King into Selma, and they’re trying to convince King this is the place we need to be.
AMY GOODMAN: And you hear Nash, and you hear Abernathy.
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s right.
RALPH ABERNATHY: [played by Colman Domingo] Oh, my lord. What you got us into, woman? We’ve got 128 miles to come to our senses, gentlemen.
DIANE NASH: [played by Tessa Thompson] Hush. This here’s the place we need to be. This right here is the next great battle.
RALPH ABERNATHY: I can only imagine. Decent-looking place to die, though.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Ralph Abernathy and Diane Nash in the film Selma. Of course, those were the figures who are portrayed, well, by actors. Colman Domingo played Abernathy, and Diane Nash was played by Tessa Thompson.
AVA DUVERNAY: Tessa Thompson, fantastic.
AMY GOODMAN: So they’re going to Selma, and King is right in there, and he’s going. So they get to Selma. And talk about the violence that they face and the challenges there.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, well, Dr. King, you know, upon arriving in Selma, was immediately assaulted by members of the White Citizens’ Council and Hotel Albert. We show that incident. Also very, very early in the film you see encounters at the Dallas County Courthouse. Very famously, C.T. Vivian, you know, shouted down and kind of preached to Jim Clark about—
AMY GOODMAN: Jim Clark is the sheriff of Selma.
AVA DUVERNAY: Jim Clark was the sheriff in Selma—about, you know, the protesters’ rights to be there. And so, we’re trying to show the wall of aggression that they were up against as they went in. I mean, at that point, the thing that’s so fascinating about this time in history for me is, King was already a national figure. He had already won the Nobel. He had already given "I Have a Dream." He could have done anything. He really could have. He had been invited to work in the administration in some way, invited to write books, lecture. He could have just said, "I hand this off to someone else." But he got right back in there to Selma. And that’s what was so fascinating about this era to me. It’s not a man becoming a leader. You’re watching someone lead and what that takes. It takes people who want to be led, and it takes comrades who are supporting it.
AMY GOODMAN: And you talk about the adversity outside. What about the adversity inside? You have this amazing clip, that you could set up for us, when he’s debating with, well, now the congressman, John Lewis, but a very young guy.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes, yes. No, we have a scene in the film—you know, it’s important to really recognize that, you know, the civil rights movement and the people who participated were not a monolith in their thought about—they weren’t monolithic in their thought about how to achieve it. With as many people as there were fighting for freedom, there were that many ideas about how to do it and how to approach it. And so, I thought it was so important to just show that everyone was not in lockstep. You had a lot of very smart people with a lot of smart ideas, and they had to be synthesized into one action. But ultimately, I was just fascinated by the process, and that’s what that—this scene shows.
AMY GOODMAN: So you have here James Forman—
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —John Lewis, and you have King asking them to describe Selma Sheriff Jim Clark, as Ralph Abernathy looks on.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: [played by David Oyelowo] John, James, answer me one question. I’ve been told the sheriff in this town isn’t like Laurie Pritchett in Albany. He’s a big, ignorant bully, like Bull Connor in Birmingham. Well, you tell me. You know Selma. You know Sheriff Jim Clark. Is he Laurie Pritchett, or is he Bull Connor?
JOHN LEWIS: [played by Stephan James] He’s Bull Connor.
RALPH ABERNATHY: [played by Colman Domingo] Bingo!
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Good.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, talk about the decision that was made at that point, what direction they would take, what King decides and what SNCC decides.
AVA DUVERNAY: They decide to move forward in, you know, wide-scale protests in Selma. We show one march on the courthouse, but there were several marches on the courthouse. Teachers marched, which was huge. Children marched, which was massive. You know, the clergy marched. But it was all really focused only on the black community. You know, it was very insulated within the black community at that time. Later, as Jimmie Lee Jackson is killed, who was a local Marion, Alabama, native who was doing these local marches, did they—did that murder trigger an idea about national mobilization. And that’s where Bloody Sunday and Turnaround Tuesday come into play, to not just march on the courthouse, but to march to Montgomery from Selma.
AMY GOODMAN: So, talk about the fact this isn’t just one march, when people hear Selma to Montgomery.
AVA DUVERNAY: Right. Most people think it’s just one.
AMY GOODMAN: Right.
AVA DUVERNAY: Most people don’t—most people don’t know. Someone said to me at a screening, "Thank you so much." And I said, "Oh, gosh, thank you." And she said, "I thought Oprah was playing a character named Selma. I didn’t even know what this"—I was like, "Well, goodness."
AMY GOODMAN: Oprah is in it, right?
AVA DUVERNAY: Oprah is in it, but she is not a woman named Selma.
AMY GOODMAN: And she’s not—and Selma is not a woman’s name.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, that’s correct. But yeah, no, it’s—these marches, yeah, there were three attempts to do it. The first two attempts were unprotected by the federal government. They were opposed by the state government. Local government, local law enforcement were against them and beating them and out to get them. So, at all levels, there was no protection. To think about walking out—I mean, we march now, and we raise our voices, and we know that, you know, as a mass, we will not be harmed. But, you know, walking out there knowing that the local sheriff is out for you, he has posse men, that the governor has ordered state troopers to physically harm you, and that the federal government and the president have not sent troops to protect you, have not ordered protection, and they did that twice, is astounding and something that we shouldn’t forget.
AMY GOODMAN: John Lewis sits in Congress today, had his head bashed in Bloody Sunday.
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s right. That’s right. That’s right. He was the leader of that march. He was on the front line of that march. So when I see John Lewis now, you know—
AMY GOODMAN: Now, King wasn’t there at that time.
AVA DUVERNAY: He wasn’t there at Bloody Sunday, no.
AMY GOODMAN: So let’s go to the final clip from Selma, where Dr. King is calling all people of conscience to come now to Selma after that first march.
REPORTER: Dr. King. Good morning, Doctor. Can we get a statement, please?
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: Morning.
REPORTER: Morning.
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.: While rageful violence continues toward the unarmed people of Selma, while they are assaulted with tear gas and batons like an enemy in a war, no citizen of this country can call themselves blameless, for we all bear a responsibility for our fellow man. I am appealing to men and women of God and goodwill everywhere, white, black and otherwise, if you believe all are created equal, come to Selma. Join us. Join our march against injustice and inhumanity. We need you to stand with us.
AMY GOODMAN: That was a clip from the Academy Award-nominated Selma. We’re talking to the director, Ava DuVernay. We’re here in Sundance. Ava, that moment where he calls on all good people to come to Selma, talk about what happened then.
AVA DUVERNAY: I love that moment, because that was the blossoming, in my mind. That was the moment where there was an open invitation to people of all faiths, colors, classes, cultures to join the fight. I mean, if you believe in justice and dignity, come stand with us, you know. And that call is so, so moving, so emotional.
AMY GOODMAN: Were those King’s very words?
AVA DUVERNAY: No. We cannot use Dr. King’s very words. I had to approximate, because another filmmaker has the rights to his exact words.
AMY GOODMAN: I don’t understand.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, King was a private individual. He was a private citizen. And his public statements, most of them are [copyrighted]. And so the estate has licensed those words to another filmmaker that’s not me. So—
AMY GOODMAN: Has that filmmaker made a film?
AVA DUVERNAY: No, but he’s going to be making a film, and it’s going to be beautiful, I am sure.
AMY GOODMAN: So you can’t quote King at all?
AVA DUVERNAY: No, no, it’s domain of his estate, yeah. So then the question was: Do you not tell the story, or do you untether yourself from the words and try to get underneath what he meant, what the ideas were? And so, I just really tried to listen very closely to everything he was saying. I rewrote those speeches. Everything you hear him say was just, you know, trying to approximate what he actually said, because the ideas are so bold, they’re so fresh, they’re so—they’re so outstanding, that it felt wrong to let them be locked away without trying to attempt them.
AMY GOODMAN: Ava DuVernay, director of the Oscar-nominated film Selma. Coming up in our last segment, we speak with her about the grassroots civil rights movement’s role in pushing President Johnson to pass the Voting Rights Act. We also learn about Coretta Scott King’s secret meeting with Malcolm X while Dr. King was in jail. And we talk with Ava DuVernay about her newly revealed plans for her next film. That’s all coming up on Democracy Now! Stay with us.
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As we continue our interview with "Selma" director Ava DuVernay, she responds to the controversy around her film’s portrayal of President Lyndon Johnson and his relationship with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The film depicts him as a reluctant, and even obstructionist, politician who had the FBI monitor and harass King. "I’m not here to rehabilitate anyone’s image or be a custodian of anyone’s legacy," DuVernay says. She expresses dismay that the debate has shifted attention from the film’s focus on protest and resistance that continues today over police brutality. DuVernay also describes how she screened "Selma" at the White House for President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama 50 years after D.W. Griffith was there to screen the notoriously racist film "Birth of a Nation" for President Woodrow Wilson.
Image Credit: Yoichi R. Okamoto - Lyndon Baines Johnson Library
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Park City, Utah, from the Sundance Film Festival, from Park City TV, as we return to my interview with Selma director Ava DuVernay.
AMY GOODMAN: So, King is in battle here in Selma, but now let’s talk about, well, that controversial backdrop around the film, which is his relationship with President Johnson. Talk about his relationship with President Johnson, the meetings he would have with him, the phone conversations he would have with him.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, you know, the relationship between MLK and LBJ wasn’t a skip in the park. You know, I don’t care how many people try to ram that down my throat or make us believe that. You know, I’m not here to rehabilitate anyone’s image or be a custodian of anyone’s legacy. From what I read and from what I have learned and listened to and know and talked to many of the people who were there, it was a relationship that was one of respect on the part of the SCLC, but they were constantly pushing and pushing and pushing. And at the time that we come into our film, they’re asking the president to fully support, you know, a push, a protest around voting rights, to—not even a protest. They just asked him straight out, will he—will he make this so? And the timing wasn’t right. It wasn’t that he didn’t believe in it. It wasn’t that he didn’t think it should happen. But it was the wrong time. He had had—just signed the ’64 act. He was—
AMY GOODMAN: The Civil Rights Act.
AVA DUVERNAY: The Civil Rights Act. And so, King comes along just months later saying, "Wait, wait, one more thing." And at that point, you know, the president is like, "We’ll get to it, but not now." And that’s all we said in the film, and that’s public record.
AMY GOODMAN: The critics of the film say he had already had his attorney general working on writing the legislation. Does that undercut, do you think, what you have said? I mean, you can have legislation written for years and never actually introduce it.
AVA DUVERNAY: Absolutely. I mean, the fact that it was being written and thought about is a completely separate issue to the fact that people are dying in the streets unprotected for it and were being told to wait. So these are two different issues that have been kind of—a lot of rhetoric around it that’s unfortunate, because I think, in our film, you know, we don’t talk about Vietnam. We don’t talk about the president’s 20 years of voting against desegregation legislation before he got into the Oval. We don’t talk about any of that. We talk about a man who believed that that equality should be, but the timing was not right at the time we pick him up in our movie. And by the end of it, he’s had a reversal, and he makes the very triumphant "We Shall Overcome" speech, which is real and which we show in the film.
AMY GOODMAN: Were you able to quote that?
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes, because he’s the president of the United States, and that’s public domain. But so, you know, I’ve been—it’s been challenging to have all of the noise around Johnson and our portrayal of him. You know, if he wanted to make him a bad guy, we certainly could have. That was not our intention. Our intention was to show a leader who was under pressure from a bunch of sides and who had a relationship with King which was very much a push and pull, which is what it was.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting. I was just talking to Stanley Nelson, the great documentarian—
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: —asking him about the controversy around Selma. Did you overly villainize LBJ, is the overall question, if that is even a word. And he went back to the summer of 1964 in Atlantic City, the whole issue of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, the effort to integrate the Mississippi Democratic Party, and the role that President Johnson played in undercutting the whole movement—
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —even to what, Fannie Lou Hamer giving a speech.
AVA DUVERNAY: Absolutely, absolutely, absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: And he calls for the press to come to him—
AVA DUVERNAY: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —just to pull the cameras away from her.
AVA DUVERNAY: Many instances of this kind of behavior. But also many instances of, you know, outward proclamations and signing of legislation that’s landmark. It’s fascinating. He was a fascinating man, but in a lot of ways he was a reluctant hero. And I don’t think that that is a bad thing. But if you are the custodian of a legacy, and your world and your income and your employment is all around the uplift of a certain legacy, then I can see how if this isn’t exactly what you’re pushing, you push against it. And that’s what’s happened here. You know, it’s unfortunate. But if we really want to talk about the legacy of Johnson, we should be talking about how the Voting Rights Act has been dismantled, if you really care about the legacy, and not what it looks like and what it feels like, but what it actually did. And no one’s talking about that.
AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk for a minute about J. Edgar Hoover—
AVA DUVERNAY: OK.
AMY GOODMAN: —and what he was doing at this time—
AVA DUVERNAY: If we have to, OK.
AMY GOODMAN: —which you certainly dealt with in Selma —
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: —what he was doing to King.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, Stanley Nelson, in his documentary, Black Panthers, gives a beautiful overview of the COINTELPRO, the Counter-Intelligence Program, the fact that, you know, people who were fighting for freedom at that time were considered, you know, public enemies and were being surveilled and were being manipulated and were being dismantled by the FBI. You say it, and it sounds very conspiracy theorist, until you really just check public record and know that J. Edgar Hoover did run a program called COINTELPRO, the Counter-Intelligence Program, that was authorized and re-authorized during the Kennedy and Johnson and Nixon administrations. And it’s a real thing, and it really is the reason why, you know, you have the black power movement and the civil rights movement that was really snuffed out in a lot of ways.
AMY GOODMAN: And the recording of King, using it, sending it to Coretta, his wife?
AVA DUVERNAY: Sure, yeah, yeah. Mrs. King speaks about that in her autobiography. This was—this was real stuff, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: The meeting of Malcolm X and Coretta Scott King while King is in jail?
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah, real. Real, yeah. Malcolm X, I just—I really fought to have that in the piece. It’s so moving to me that Malcolm X, just weeks before his assassination, actually sought out King and actually went to Selma with an offering, with an offering of himself, of his reputation, to say, "They will be afraid of me so much that they may do what you want as an alternative, so let me be here to represent what can happen if they do not work with you, the SCLC." And there’s just something really sad, emotional to me about that, because I love Malcolm and I love King, to think that they were so close to maybe having some alignment. But it wasn’t to be.
AMY GOODMAN: He would be killed soon after that.
AVA DUVERNAY: He would be killed soon after, yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: And, of course, Dr. King, as well, a few years later.
AVA DUVERNAY: King just two years after, that’s right.
AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about the dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, this 50 years after these Selma marches. President Obama has announced he will be going to Selma.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: What your thoughts about that, on the 50th anniversary?
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, I mean, I celebrate him going, you know, anything that can bring more attention to this. A real tragedy, American tragedy, is what this is. So many people at risk of losing their right to let their voices be heard, it’s a shame. I thought that was going to be the primary conversation around Selma, as I was making it—naïvely. You know, I thought that was—hoped that that is what people would talk about. And then you have the murders of Mike Brown and Tamir Rice and Eric Garner, and non-indictments, and it turns to be talk about something else, which was wonderful and troubling, and then you have protests. And our film speaks about protest and resistance, and so that was another conversation. Now you have diversity and exclusion and inclusion, and that’s another conversation. And this film, you know, every month it’s morphing and taking on new issues, and, you know, for whatever anything else is going on. My heart—even in just talking to you, if I think about it too much, I’ll get emotional. But it’s a good thing.
AMY GOODMAN: You screened the film for the Obamas at the White House?
AVA DUVERNAY: Mm-hmm.
AMY GOODMAN: Were the kids there also?
AVA DUVERNAY: No, the kids weren’t there. They had just finished their exams, and they were out with friends. So we were able to have a grown-up—a grown-up evening. But it was lovely. They have seen it; the children have seen it, though. And it was beautiful to be in the White House in 2015 with a film like Selma, knowing that in 1915 the first film to ever unspool at the White House was The Birth of a Nation. And so, 100 years later—
AMY GOODMAN: Explain Birth of a Nation.
AVA DUVERNAY: Well, The Birth of a Nation is—do I have to explain Birth of a Nation to your audience?
AMY GOODMAN: In two sentences, yes.
AVA DUVERNAY: Do they know?
AMY GOODMAN: And there are a lot of young people who weren’t yet born in 1915.
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s true. D.W. Griffith, a very innovative filmmaker, who craft-wise was at the vanguard of filmmaking, but politically and culturally was a complete racist, made a film that was epic and very widely embraced in 1915 called The Birth of a Nation, which was—might be the worst piece of film you will ever see, if you believe in the equality of all people. And that was the first film to ever be screened at the White House, and that was in 1915, exactly 100 years ago from the year now, in 2015, that we sit there and we show Selma, directed by a black woman, about—you know, about the triumph and the tragedy and the forward movement around what is Selma. And so, it was a big moment.
AMY GOODMAN: President Obama says he’ll go on March 7th. The community there wants him to come March 8th, when it is actually celebrated.
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh, is that right?
AMY GOODMAN: I think.
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh.
AMY GOODMAN: Any thoughts on that?
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh, I didn’t know about the dates. I didn’t know anything about it.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you went to Selma, yourself, after.
AVA DUVERNAY: Yeah.
AMY GOODMAN: Where did you film Selma?
AVA DUVERNAY: We filmed it in Atlanta and in Selma and in Montgomery, so to bring the film back to Selma.
AMY GOODMAN: And what was that like?
AVA DUVERNAY: I can’t even—it was two days after we had—Thursday, the Thursday of that week, were the Oscar nominations. The Friday, we were in the White House. The Sunay, we had brought the film back to Selma. We shot Selma with real extras from Selma. All the people that walk across the bridge, when you see the film, are really from that area. We didn’t ship in Hollywood extras. We used people from there, who we asked to reimagine, relive this wound, this open wound [inaudible].
AMY GOODMAN: Had some marched 50 years ago?
AVA DUVERNAY: Some had marched, some survivors of the 1965 march there. And so, to bring the film back to them and to do this commemorative march from the city hall to the bridge, and then to have John Legend sing "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" at sunset over the water of the Alabama River, and for Common and Legend to sing "Glory," it was—it was more than spectacle. It felt like a rallying call, a call to action. The people in the community really just called it a refreshment of their intention to really let Selma be more than just something that’s locked in the past, but a legacy that really drives them forward.
AMY GOODMAN: So, what do you hope will happen with this film now? In New York, kids from nine to 13, or whatever, were able to go to the film in whatever movie theater to see it for free?
AVA DUVERNAY: Yes, that was how it started. Twenty-seven black business owners, black business leaders, pooled together their money, organically—no one asked them to do it—to send 27,000 New York City kids, seventh, eighth and ninth graders, to see the film at any participating theater. You just walk in with your report card or your student ID, and you could see the film. Since then, that announcement, 27 other cities around the country, black business leaders in 27 other cities, have given free screening tickets to over a quarter of a million kids, free. It’s unprecedented. It’s never been done. So, as much as people want to talk about LBJ and Oscars, ugh, it’s like this film is planting seeds, for seventh, eighth and ninth graders to see this story and to understand that MLK is more than a stamp, he’s more than your school name, he’s more than a street name, he’s more than that holiday where you get a couple days off. What he really stood for is a seed planted that I hope will bear beautiful fruit.
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As Ava DuVernay considers her next steps after "Selma," her first big budget feature film, she offers advice to aspiring filmmakers. "We have to work without permission. Especially as women in this industry. Who are we asking for permission to do what we want to do? That should be eradicated. You need to set a path and start walking." DuVernay discusses her next feature film, which will be a love story and murder mystery set in New Orleans amidst the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, and recalls the impact acclaimed film critic Roger Ebert had on her life, who raved about one of her first projects, "I Will Follow." "He lifted that film from nowhere, and lifted me up with it," she says.
TRANSCRIPT
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: And for young people, women, people of color, as a young African-American woman director, what words of wisdom do you have to share, as you not look back on your career, but you continue to go forward?
AVA DUVERNAY: That’s exactly what it is. It’s go forward. You know, we have to work without permission, especially as women in this industry. Who are we asking for permission to do what we want to do? That should be eradicated. You need to set a path and start walking. And that is what I’ve tried to do and what I try to encourage folks to do—walk with me, let me walk with you, let’s walk with each other. And I think, you know, so much of the industry is very permission-based. And once you get out of your mind that you have to ask anyone to do what you want to do, you’ll be better for it.
AMY GOODMAN: What’s your next project?
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh, exciting project. My next project is a love story and a murder mystery set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina. I was really interested in examining how intimate relationships are frayed during chaos and to really look at the chaos. So I really embraced the idea in Selma of this kind of epic story, but also the intimacy of the relationships within it, and I want to continue that, looking at Hurricane Katrina. We’re coming up on 10 years of that, 10 years since that happened. And as a country, cinematically, as artists, it hasn’t been dealt with, I think. And so, I want to do it in the context of all the things that matter most, our lives and our loves, against that. So that’s what I’m working on.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re in another major film that’s just come out; it’s about Roger Ebert.
AVA DUVERNAY: Oh, yes.
AMY GOODMAN: It’s called Life Itself. What effect did Roger Ebert have, the film critic, on your life?
AVA DUVERNAY: If I had not come—crossed paths with Roger Ebert, I wouldn’t be sitting here with you right now, and I wouldn’t have made Selma. I had made a film called I Will Follow, that was going nowhere. Made it with my own money for $50,000. No one was reviewing the film. No one was booking the film. It was going to end up sitting on my shelf.
AMY GOODMAN: What was it about?
AVA DUVERNAY: It was about—it was a very intimate story about a woman who had recently lost her aunt and is packing up the house that they shared together. It’s about grief and moving on. And it’s a rare film with black protagonists. It’s very small, and it’s very quiet. There’s not a lot going on, like we usually see from films with black protagonists. And so, it was different. And I sent it to him, and I asked him if he’d look at it. But the nerve, the audacity. And he did. And he wrote one of the most beautiful reviews I’ve ever read, for anyone. And he wrote another one. And he tweeted 27 times and raved and told friends and did a TV review about it, when he was using Bill Kurtis’s voice for his voice. And he lifted that film from nowhere and lifted me up with it. And from that, I had the confidence to make Middle of Nowhere, which then won Sundance, and that brought me to Selma. And so, I can say very definitively—and I’ve said it to Chaz, and I said it in the documentary, which is gorgeous, Life Itself—one person can make a difference, and he made a difference for me. And I just hope he would be proud of this now. I hope he would.
AMY GOODMAN: Ava DuVernay, director of Selma. It’s been nominated for an Oscar for best film.
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Headlines:
Syriza Leader Alexis Tsipras Sworn In as Greek Prime Minister
Alexis Tsipras, the head of the leftist, anti-austerity Syriza party, has been sworn in as Greece’s new prime minister. Syriza won a decisive victory in Sunday’s election, becoming the first anti-austerity party to lead one of the 19 nations in the eurozone since the economic crisis began. Syriza spokesperson Panos Skourletis said Europe should not be worried about the new government’s policies.
Panos Skourletis: "Europe should not be afraid of parties like Syriza. If it should be afraid of something, it should be afraid of itself. I refer to the dominant strategic policies of extreme austerity, which have been imposed primarily by the main power in Europe, Germany. These dogmatic, neoliberal economic policies have driven Europe to a stagnation."
New Greek Finance Minister Vows to Destroy Greek Oligarchy
Yanis Varoufakis is expected to be named as Greece’s new finance minister today. He is an economics professor who once described the EU-imposed austerity measures as "fiscal waterboarding." During an interview on Channel 4 in Britain, he vowed to destroy the Greek oligarchy.
Yanis Varoufakis: "Freedom of speech in Greece has been jeopardized by this unholy alliance between bankrupt bankers, developers and media owners who become the voice of those who want to sponge and scrounge off everyone else’s productive efforts."
Paul Mason: "And what will you do to the oligarchy concretely?"
Varoufakis: "We are going to destroy the basis upon which they have built, for decade after decade, a system and network that viciously sucks of the energy and the economic power from everybody else in society."
Greece Considers Seeking Reparations from Germany over Nazi Crimes
On Monday, Greece’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, visited a World War II National Resistance Memorial in his first outing as the country’s new leader. The memorial is located at the site where the Nazis executed 200 Greek communist resistance fighters in May 1944. During the recent campaign, Tsipras called on Germany to pay Greece reparations for damages incurred during the Nazi occupation. A 2013 governmental study determined Germany owed Greece an estimated $200 billion.
States of Emergency Declared in Northeastern U.S. States Due to Heavy Winter Storm
States of emergency were declared across the Northeastern United States due to a heavy winter storm that is still hitting Massachusetts hard. In New York City, a blizzard warning has been canceled after the city was spared the worst of the storm. According to the National Weather Service, the storm moved further east of the city, resulting in "much less snow" than previously predicted. The city had taken the extraordinary precaution of shutting down the entire subway system and barring all non-emergency vehicles from the roads. On Monday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said massive storms are part of the changing climate.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo: "I believe I’ve gone through more emergency disasters in four years than any governor in history has gone through. There is a pattern of extreme weather that we have never seen before. Buffalo sees snow. Buffalo had never seen seven feet of snow before. So, you’re getting a repeat pattern of these extreme weather situations, whether it’s Hurricane Sandy or seven feet of snow, and that’s part of the changing climate, I believe, that has brought this new extreme weather pattern. And it’s something we have to adjust to. It’s something that’s very costly. It’s also something that is very dangerous."
Nine Ukrainian Soldiers Die; Putin Criticizes Ukraine’s Ties to NATO
Nine Ukrainian servicemen have been killed while fighting Russian-backed separatists. Twenty-nine others were wounded. The Ukrainian government says rebel groups have carried out 120 attacks on government positions in the past 24 hours. Both sides blame the other for the recent outbreak in fighting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the Ukrainian military of putting the interests of NATO over the interests of the Ukrainian people. He said the Ukrainian army "is not an army, but a foreign legion, in this case a foreign NATO legion."
Obama, Kerry, Brennan Head Delegation to Meet New Saudi King
President Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia with a 27-member delegation to Saudi Arabia to pay respects following the death of King Abdullah and to meet Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman. Officials traveling with Obama include CIA Director John Brennan, General Lloyd Austin, head of U.S. Central Command forces in the region, and Secretary of State John Kerry. Meanwhile, Army Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has established a research and essay competition to honor the late King Abdullah. The contest will be open to students at the National Defense University. Dempsey described King Abdullah as a "man of remarkable character and courage." This comes as Saudi Arabia carried out its first beheading under the new king on Monday. In a statement, Amnesty International said: "While we recognize that Saudi Arabia is in a period of mourning, it must also be acknowledged that there are serious concerns about torture and unlawful detention or beheading by the authorities in the past decade."
U.S. Drone Kills 12-Year-Old Yemeni Boy
More details have come to light about a U.S. drone strike in Yemen Monday. The strike reportedly killed two suspected members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula as well as a 12-year-old boy identified as Mohammed Toiman. The boy’s father and brother had also been killed in U.S. drone strikes.
Shiite Militias Accused of Executing 70 Unarmed Civilians
In news from Iraq, the Iraqi military says it has "liberated" the eastern province of Diyala from the Islamic State. Security forces and pro-government Shiite militias took control of about two dozen villages near the border with Iran after a three-day assault. Meanwhile, an Iraqi governor, parliamentarian and two tribal chiefs are accusing Shiite militias of executing more than 70 unarmed civilians who had fled the fighting with the Islamic State. Mass graves have been found in the eastern village of Barwanah. Some of the victims are said to be children.
Eight Die in Attack on Libyan Hotel
In Libya, five foreigners and three guards have reportedly died after militants attacked a hotel popular with foreign diplomats and government officials in Tripoli. Several gunmen stormed Tripoli’s Corinthia Hotel and opened fire in the reception area. A car bomb also exploded outside the hotel.
DEA Builds National Database to Track Vehicles
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the Justice Department has been building a national database to track in real time the movement of vehicles around the United States. The secret domestic intelligence-gathering program scans and stores hundreds of millions of records about motorists. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration created the license plate-tracking program to combat drug trafficking, but many state and local law enforcement agencies are accessing the database for a variety of investigations. High-tech cameras placed strategically on major highways are used to collect data about vehicle movements, including time, direction and location, as well as visual images of drivers and passengers. Sen. Patrick Leahy, the senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, criticized the program, saying Americans shouldn’t have to fear "their locations and movements are constantly being tracked and stored in a massive government database."
CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling Convicted for Leaking Information
A federal jury in Virginia has convicted former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling of nine felony counts, including espionage. Prosecutors accused Sterling of leaking classified information about a secret operation to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program to journalist James Risen of The New York Times. Risen later revealed how the risky operation could have inadvertently aided the Iranian nuclear program. Supporters of Sterling described him as a whistleblower, but prosecutors claimed he leaked the information to settle a score with the agency. Sterling is scheduled to be sentenced in April. He faces a maximum possible sentence of decades in prison.
Report: Koch Brothers-Linked Groups to Spend $900 Million on 2016 Race
In election news, The Washington Post reports a network of conservative advocacy groups backed by the Koch brothers aims to spend a staggering nearly $900 million in advance of the 2016 presidential election. The amount is more than double the $400 million that 17 allied groups in the network raised during the 2012 campaign. Over the weekend, three potential Republican presidential candidates — Sen. Marco Rubio, Sen. Rand Paul and Sen. Ted Cruz — faced off in what some dubbed the Koch primary, a closed-door gathering organized by the billionaire brothers.
Argentine President to Disband Nation’s Intelligence Agency
In news from Latin America, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has announced plans to disband the nation’s intelligence agency amid suspicions that rogue agents were behind the mysterious death of a state prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center that killed 85 people. The prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, had accused President Fernández of helping to cover up Iran’s role in the bombing. He died on January 18, just a day before he was due to appear in Congress to testify about his findings. President Fernández said on Monday night she would send Congress a bill creating a new security body that would be more transparent.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner: "Essentially, we have seen in these days a sort of permanent revolving door between prosecutors, judges, journalists, media, intelligence services who handle judicial documents or who handle prosecutors or who handle judges. Clearly this has been revealed in recent moments, and it’s necessary to pull out the root, which is why I have taken the decision to dissolve the (intelligence) ministry and the Federal Intelligence Agency."
Fidel Castro Lends Support to U.S. Talks
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has appeared to lend his support to talks with the United States in his first comments since both countries agreed last month to restore diplomatic ties. In a statement published in the Cuban newspaper Granma and read aloud by a student on Cuban TV, Castro said he does not trust the policy of the United States but also doesn’t reject a peaceful solution to the conflict.
Cuban Student (reading Fidel Castro message): "To defend peace is the duty of all. Any peaceful or negotiated solution to the problems between the United States and the peoples or any people of Latin America that doesn’t imply force or the use of force should be treated in accordance with international norms and principles. We will always defend cooperation and friendship with all the peoples of the world, among them our political adversaries. It is what we are asking for everyone."
Thousands Protest in Mexico over Disappearance of Students
In Mexico City, thousands of protesters marched Monday to mark four months since the disappearance of 43 students in September. The students were allegedly abducted by local police working with drug gangs, and according to one report, possibly federal forces, as well. Mexican authorities have said the students were incinerated at a garbage dump by drug gang members, but forensic experts say they have been unable to match incinerated remains found in a dump with the DNA of the missing students. Only one student’s remains have been positively identified. Hilda Legideño, the mother of missing student Jorge Tizapa, said she did not trust the government’s claims.
Hilda Legideño: "They are not our children. These tests they are doing, we don’t believe in them. Our children are alive, because the police took them, and the government knows where our children are. We don’t believe in these tests. Scientists have squashed the version of the attorney general’s office, and we don’t believe them."
Costa Rican Judge Acquits Men for Killing Sea Turtle Conservationist
In news from Costa Rica, a judge has acquitted seven men of murder charges in the killing of a young sea turtle conservationist named Jairo Mora. In May 2013 Mora was attacked by armed men shortly after an expedition to the beach to collect leatherback sea turtle eggs to rebury them safely away from the poachers. Mora was 26 years old. He was a member of the group Widecast, which coordinates efforts to protect turtle eggs across Central America.
Obama to Open Atlantic Coast to Offshore Oil Drilling
In other environmental news, the Obama administration is expected to propose today to open up coastal waters from Virginia to Georgia for new offshore oil and gas drilling. This comes just a day after he announced a plan to protect some of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from drilling. The Natural Resources Defense Council criticized allowing offshore drilling in the Atlantic. Bob Deans of NRDC said: "It would ignore the lessons of the disastrous BP blowout, the need to protect future generations from the dangers of climate change and the promise of a clean-energy future."
125 People Exonerated in 2014
A record 125 people were exonerated in the United States last year. Thirty-three of the exonerations came in the Houston, Texas, area where 33 individuals had drug convictions dismissed after lab tests determined they never had illegal substances. Many of the individuals had pleaded guilty before the lab work was done. Samuel Gross of the National Registry of Exonerations said: "One of the reasons people plead guilty for a crime they have not committed is they can’t make bail and have to wait in jail while waiting for trial. If they are convicted, they might get decades in prison. They plead guilty if they are offered a deal that is too good to resist."
Police Shoot Teenage Girl Dead in Denver
Police in Denver, Colorado, have shot and killed a teenage girl. Police say the girl was driving a stolen vehicle and struck and injured an officer, although it is unclear whether she did so on purpose. The girl has been identified by friends as 16-year-old Jessica Hernandez. According to The Denver Post, a video captured by a neighbor shows police handcuffed and appeared to search the girl after she was shot, rolling her on her back and stomach as she lay limp and motionless. Police took the other teenagers who were in the car with Hernandez into custody. Monday night, residents held a vigil in the alley where the shooting took place, holding placards, including one that said, "Girls’ lives matter too."
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