Ava DuVernay

It’s been a long time coming, but lately women have stepped up to the plate and become major players in front of and behind the camera. Women are no longer invisible, and the growing trend in recent years is of women in Hollywood gaining more opportunities not only as actors but in careers which include such positions as directors, writers, producers, cinematographers and editors.

Centering around the misguided prosecution of five African American boys for a crime they did not commit, the so-called “Central Park Five case” stands as a modern paradigm of racial injustice, even as it evokes a long history of similar events in American history. Created, written and directed by Ava DuVernay, When They See Us is the Netflix miniseries based on the 1989 case, exploring the arrest and trial’s impact on the five prosecuted Harlem teens and their families and questioning the U.

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Season Two of Queen Sugar, the series created and produced by Golden Globe-nominee Ava DuVernay – part I of the premiere aired yesterday, with part II coming up today – was shot in New Orleans where the story of the Bordelon family takes place. In May they were filming the midseason finale - and what a day to be on the set! One rarely gets to see such highly emotional scenes being filmed, much less reading the sides (pages being shot on a particular day), but in the interest of the unwritten ‘no spoilers, please!’-rule, we will not divulge details.

Men are still trending blue, while women continue to embrace flowers, textures, and march to the beat of their own drum.

One in an occasional series featuring prominent women working in Hollywood today.   “It’s bittersweet.