National Domestic Violence Awareness Project

profeminist:

“Award-winning director Ava DuVernay is turning her powerful productions into a resource for classrooms and independent study. On Thursday, she is launching a new initiative called ARRAY 101.

It will offer free learning guides for students to accompany TV and film productions. The first one is for her mini-series, “When They See Us,” a four-part drama about the five black boys wrongfully convicted of a Central Park rape in 1989.

She said the emotional response to the series led her team to develop ARRAY 101. “So many people came up to me and said, ‘I cried. I couldn’t finish it.’ You know, they felt very deeply about it. But I think what I failed to do and what many of us in Hollywood failed to do is connect the dots between the thing you make and the people who are watching, particularly young people,” DuVernay told “CBS This Morning” co-host Gayle King.

To bridge that intersection between film and social justice, DuVernay’s production company, ARRAY, partnered with Participant Media to create what she calls a “learning companion” for “When They See Us.”

DuVernay told King she hopes the resources will empower youth and inspire action.

Read more of their conversation below.”

Read the full piece here