Ava DuVernay Launches LEAP, the ‘Law Enforcement Accountability Project’, to Spotlight Police Brutality in Media

LEAP initiative will turn a critical eye towards police brutality through narrative storytelling

Director Ava DuVernay has announced the launch of the Law Enforcement Accountability Project, or LEAP, that will spotlight stories of police brutality in all forms of media.

Per LEAP’s website:

LEAP is…a propulsive fund dedicated to empowering activists as they pursue narrative change around the police abuse of Black People. Our mission is to disrupt the code of silence that exists around police aggression and misconduct. We will no longer accept this. We will tell the true stories. The goal of LEAP is to elevate activist storytelling around police brutality and murder through funding short-term projects in film, theater, photography, fine art, music, poetry, literature, sculpture and dance. Change begins with the stories we tell each other about the police and Black people. This is our work. The fund is powered by advocates who believe in police transparency and visibility.

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Inciting Moment

DuVernay created the initiative in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police, which occurred back on May 25. Floyd’s killing has since sparked massive anti-racist protests and calls to defund police departments all across the country.

“I’m used to watching racist, violent images, so why did George Floyd’s final moments devastate me like it did?” DuVernay asked herself. “I realized that it was because this time the cop isn’t hidden behind a body cam or distorted by grainy surveillance video. This time, I can see the cop’s face.”

She elaborated:

As a viewer, there are several times when [former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin] even looks right at me. Then .?.?. I started to realize how rare that is. And that led me to think, ‘how many of these police officers do we never see?’ They disappear, end up leaving town, and show up in another department. Their names are said, but it’s never amplified and it’s kind of like this group contract. Somehow, we, as American citizens, have agreed to not speak their names. I do not agree to that anymore.

DuVernay went on to say that policing in America is a “broken system”, and that citizens should feel safe in speaking out against it. Police brutality and systemic racism have long been subjects of her works, from her Oscar-nominated films Selma and 13th to her Netflix mini-series When They See Us.

LEAP’s First Steps

DuVernay will release and fund LEAP projects through her ARRAY Alliance non-profit label, which was founded in 2010 to promote films by women and people of color. The plan is to fund 25 projects over the next two years. There aren’t any details about the upcoming projects yet, but DuVernay says the first one will arrive in August.

LEAP has already raised over $3 million in support from organizations and individuals, from the Ford Foundation to producer Ryan Murphy.

“…[W]hat we’re trying to do through storytelling through LEAP is say, we need to start telling the stories about those who murder and about those who are not being held accountable,” DuVernay said, “to start to get us to think about the fact that we have this big blindspot.”

Leave your thoughts on Ava DuVernay’s new Law Enforcement Accountability Project (via The Wrap and the Washington Post) and this article below and in the comments section. Readers seeking to support this type of content can visit our Patreon Page and become one of FilmBook’s patrons. Readers seeking more movie news can visit our Movie News Page and our Movie News Twitter Page. Want up-to-the-minute notifications? FilmBook staff members publish articles by Email, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, and Flipboard.