Oprah Winfrey Sits Down With ‘13th’ Director Ava DuVernay In An Exclusive Netflix Interview

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13th

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She’s back! Oprah Winfrey sat down with 13th director Ava DuVernay for an exclusive 36-minute-long special for Netflix. 13th: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay plays like one of Winfrey’s classic sitdowns — there’s introspection with doses of optimism. Winfrey and DuVernay have worked together before, but this is the first official conversation that they’ve taped with Winfrey interviewing DuVernay.

Winfrey drilled DuVernay on her interview tactics: getting the truth from Newt Gingrich and getting through her nervousness interviewing civil rights legend Angela Davis. Winfrey also asked DuVernay about how she felt about the current administration. Footage of Trump and the racism exhibited at his rallies (and his rhetoric) shows up in 13th.

DuVernay said the Trump Presidency is “scary” to her. She told Winfrey that it’s “scary to think about a Commander in Chief who is not proceeding in a place of grace, is not gracious, is very petty. You know, tweeting about game shows and reality shows and Saturday Night Live. It’s, like, not tweeting and focusing on the people. That’s scary.”

“I believe that something very positive and powerful is going to come out of it. Because I believe when you go through challenges — and this is something that you’ve taught me as well – it’s not ‘Why is this happening to me,’ it’s, “It is happening for me,'” DuVernay said. “This could enlarge us in a way and unify us in a way that is positive.”

The whole discussion is interesting for a lot of the reasons you would expect it would be. After all, 13th is a brilliant documentary and Winfrey is an expert interviewer. Obviously this special is set to give a boost to 13th‘s Oscar chances — the film is nominated for Best Documentary Feature — but it also had this viewer wondering if it’s a sign that Oprah might miss the interview format. I personally wouldn’t mind it if Oprah dropped an exclusive interview on Netflix every now and again.

Stream '13th: A Conversation with Oprah Winfrey & Ava DuVernay' on Netflix

Stream '13th' on Netflix