‘One Thousand and One’ Director on Diversity Gains in Hollywood – The Hollywood Reporter

One Thousand and One by A.V. Rockwell

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From the first moments of AV Rockwell’s first film, One thousand and one, the audience is accompanied by Teyana Taylor’s vivid portrayal of Inez, a woman in Harlem in 1994. She has just gotten out of Rikers and is on a mission to rescue her son Terry from the foster care system. As Terry grows older, the viewer follows their loving but chaotic relationship in a changing city. After winning the 2023 Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, One thousand and oneIt continues to rack up awards for Taylor and Rockwell, who now finds herself nominated for her first feature film at the DGA Awards. I recently spoke with THR About the beginning of its indelible central character and her image of New York.

What is the origin of Inez?

It was really about creating a character that I wanted to see, especially in the way mothers of color were represented. To me, it was a fantasy of a fearless person in control of his own destiny, or very determined to, anyway — especially when you think about movies that depict our stories, like the story of the white savior, someone else coming to us and keeping the day. It was really important to me, from the beginning, to make sure that she was this woman who was a force of nature and a tribute to all the women I knew in real life who were so committed to being heroines. people around them. I wanted it to be imperfect because I think the best characters are. I’m really invested in the stories about redemption. It’s important to make sure that we’re not suggesting that, as storytellers, you need to be a perfect human being to deserve love and affection.

Was Tiana always your first choice for Inez?

I was looking for an actress that felt authentic, not only in the way she could portray the layers of this woman, but also in the way she represented New York. I didn’t want it to be performative because not everyone can portray an experience like that that’s not their own, especially the experience of this everyday urban woman walking around New York City. I didn’t want anything to come off as false. We went through a lot of names of some of the hottest women working in Hollywood right now, but also, I was on social media looking for new faces — there was a rapper, I won’t mention his name, that I was looking for. It wasn’t until I saw Tiana’s tape that it became very clear that it was the right group. She had enough experience to achieve what I was looking for in an artist, but she also knew this woman in real life. You’ve got the right level of empathy and genuine connection.

The depiction of the Giuliani era at the beginning of the film is evocative. But can you also talk about how the dawn of the Bloomberg era is also exciting for you in that way?

In the Giuliani era, and especially at the beginning of the film, I wanted to emphasize the vibrancy of New York City on a number of levels. You feel it in the colors, you feel it in the textures and the sounds, and how personal the city was. Although the city was emerging from a very difficult period in its history, it was a city considered less attractive but at the same time more attractive. But obviously, when Giuliani came in and cleaned it up and made all these changes, I think the city that he was trying to shape in a way that became more attractive, ironically, seemed less attractive. At the turn of the century, as Bloomberg dealt with it, it became less attractive and less cheerful. It’s more glass, more steel, and more inaccessible for people of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

There’s been a lot of buzz since the Oscar nominations came out about Greta Gerwig’s best director snub. Looking at your category in the DGA Awards, Cord Jefferson is the only male nominee, and overall, it seems more diverse than what the Academy came up with. What do you think about the fact that you belong to a category that includes primarily female directors, and a number of directors of color, and yet there still feels like a hurdle when it comes to bigger awards shows?

Progress is happening, and this is a sign of it. But it is slow and complicated. Sometimes it feels like we take two steps forward and then take five steps back. And sometimes it’s at the same time, which is ironic because even in the context of my film, if I think about it, that’s really how my film ends. Inez succeeds in breaking the cycle, at the same time that they are still losing to the repeated cycles. However, once again, their families were on the verge of being broken up—in this case, by gentrification, another new obstacle for communities of color. But at the same time it still works. She knows for a fact that Terry will have a better life than she and Lucky (her boyfriend-turned-husband, played by Will Catlett) had. I think that, even in this moment, in the way that you acknowledge the life that I lead as an upcoming filmmaker in this industry, it’s the same thing. I see a lot of nuance and a lot of red tape that can explain why our stories go unrecognized or our work goes unrecognized. But at the same time there is change. I’m happy with the progress that’s happening, but I’m not settled in it because I know we have to keep putting pressure on people.

This story first appeared in the February 7 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.