Fresh Air Weekend: 'Selma' Director Ava DuVernay And Writer George Pelecanos

Ava DuVernay is up for a Golden Globe for best film director. This makes her the first African-American woman to be nominated in that category.
Ava DuVernay is up for a Golden Globe for best film director. This makes her the first African-American woman to be nominated in that category. Atsushi Nishijima / Courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Fresh Air Weekend highlights some of the best interviews and reviews from past weeks, and new program elements specially paced for weekends. Our weekend show emphasizes interviews with writers, filmmakers, actors, and musicians, and often includes excerpts from live in-studio concerts. This week:

The Sounds, Space And Spirit Of 'Selma': A Director's Take: Ava DuVernay's new film dramatizes a turning point in civil rights history. She says she wanted to "elevate [Selma] from a page in your history book and really just get it ... into your DNA."

D.C. Author George Pelecanos Writes What He Knows In 'The Martini Shot': In his new collection of short stories and a novella, Pelecanos explores crime, adoption and writing from an African-American point of view. He says he's "aware of the responsibility" to get it right.

You can listen to the original interviews here:

The Sounds, Space And Spirit Of 'Selma': A Director's Take

D.C. Author George Pelecanos Writes What He Knows In 'The Martini Shot'

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.

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