In-flight entertainment is getting an upgrade, thanks to Ava DuVernay’s ARRAY Releasing. The “Selma” director’s banner has partnered with JetBlue to launch an in-flight pop-up channel, featuring a curated selection of 12 independent feature films from women directors and filmmakers of color, a press release announced. The ARRAY channel made its debut December 1 and aims to “[amplify] the varied voices of storytellers” while taking advantage of the unique setting and experience of flying on a plane.
“Over the years, I’ve experienced transformative moments by watching films while flying. Something about the intimacy of being in the air as stories unfold has always appealed to me,” reflected DuVernay, who established ARRAY Releasing in 2011 to uplift underrepresented voices in cinema. “Our hope is that JetBlue travelers will sit back and enjoy the magic of these films, exploring new visions and new voices while in the majesty of mid-air.”
The channel includes titles such as Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ “The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open,” a Canadian Screen Award winner that tells the story of two Indigenous women who are brought together by desperate circumstances, and DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere,” a Sundance-winning drama about a woman’s separation from her incarcerated husband.
DuVernay ‘s “Selma,” a dramatized retelling of Martin Luther King Jr-led campaign for Black voting rights in 1965, received a Best Picture nomination at the 2015 Oscars. At the 2017 Oscars, she was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for “13th,” an in-depth look inside the racial inequality of the prison system and American history at large. Her other credits include the Emmy-winning Netflix drama “When They See Us” and Madeleine L’Engle adaptation “A Wrinkle in Time.”
