“I think there’s an expectation of privilege—the stories that we hear of Harvey Weinstein coming in and giving Kevin Smith a three-picture deal, of someone coming in, they see your little short, and you’re an overnight sensation,” writer-director Ava DuVernay explains to us when we ask her how she would advise an aspiring filmmaker. “Those days are gone… accept the reality and do it.” DuVernay is about to release her second narrative film, Middle of Nowhere, for she won the directing award at Sundance in January.