From the release of Selma, to her Golden Globe nomination, 2014 was an amazing year for Ava DuVernay, and 2015 is looking pretty bright for the indie director. When she’s not behind the camera, DuVernay continues to support black people and black women in a myriad of ways. She recently talked with Bitch Magazine, regarding how she still made black women an integral part of Selma, even though it starred a man.

You know, I always make films about Black women, and there’s a whole bunch of Black women in this film as well. I mean, King is the centerpiece, but when I tackled the film and came on board with the film, I brought in about twenty-seven new characters and insisted that the women of the movement be portrayed, so I expanded the character of Coretta Scott King. I added the character of Diane Nash, added the character of Amelia Boynton, added the character of Richie Jean Jackson, and expanded the character of Annie Lee Cooper. So, yeah, I will never make a film without a Black woman in it. I can say that very clearly. There’s no world in which I’m interested in telling stories where we are not there.

Read more at Bitch Magazine.