Director Ava DuVernay's Full-Circle Family Moment While Filming Selma

Selma director Ava DuVernay was on home soil while directing the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. biopic on location in Montgomery, Alabama. Ava's father grew up in Montgomery during the civil rights movement, and her parents still live right outside the city.

While visiting Ava on set, the director says, her father was immediately taken back to that time in his life. "He just steps into downtown Montgomery, which has been transformed into 1965. [There's] a lot of turmoil and history around that that's very toxic to people that are from there," Ava says. "And so to see his daughter, a black woman, say, 'Cut,' [and] everyone stops. And, 'Action,' and everyone starts. You know, he's talked to me about how big a moment that was for him."

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