By Lindsey Bahr, Film Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) --"Kung Fu Panda 2" director Jennifer Yuh Nelson was the first woman to solo direct an animated feature for a major Hollywood studio and the first woman of color to direct a film with a budget of $150 million. While she has broken a number of glass ceilings, she insists she never realizes it until someone tells her.
"I go, oh, really? That's cool. I don't know. I don't think about it. I just enjoy doing the work," Nelson says.
Now, Nelson is taking another big leap, into live-action with the adaptation of author Alexandra Bracken's young adult novel "The Darkest Minds" for 20th Century Fox, which comes out on Aug. 3. It's a transition that few in the industry make, from animation to live-action. But Nelson had always dreamed of working with the tangible.
The story imagines a world where teenagers develop mystical abilities, and fearful adults imprison them. Amandla Stenberg plays the lead, Ruby, who helps form a resistance group. Mandy Moore, Gwendoline Christie and Bradley Whitford also star.
"The film itself is not going for the same dystopian young adult ride that people have gotten used to," Nelson says. "There is sort of an optimistic, empowering, friendship-driven story about kids who are facing some really dire and dark situations."
While Nelson might not rest on her laurels, she will occasionally stop to reflect on what she's been able to accomplish when she gets letters from students in film school or art school who admire her. They're often women.
"It's true there aren't that many people they can point to and say that person looks like me or has the same experience as me or want the same things as me and are doing what I want to do. They tell me it's encouraging to them to realize it," she says. "And that makes me feel really good."
Civil rights groups call on major corporations to stick with DEI programs
A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.
An open letter signed by 19 organizations and directed at the leaders of Fortune 1000 companies said companies that abandon their DEI programs are shirking their fiduciary responsibility to employees, consumers and shareholders.
The civil rights groups included the NAACP, the National Organization for Women, the League of United Latin American Citizens, Asian Americans Advancing Justice and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation.
"Diversity, equity and inclusion programs, policies, and practices make business-sense and they're broadly popular among the public, consumers, and employees," their statement read. "But a small, well-funded, and extreme group of right-wing activists is attempting to pressure companies into abandoning their DEI programs."
Companies such as Ford, Lowes, John Deere, Molson Coors and Harley-Davidson recently announced they would pull back on their diversity, equity and inclusion policies after facing pressure from conservative activists who were emboldened by recent victories in the courtroom.
Many major corporations have been examining their diversity programs in the wake of a Supreme Court decision last year that declared race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions unconstitutional. Dozens of cases have been filed making similar arguments about employers. Critics of DEI programs say the initiatives provide benefits to people of one race or sexual orientation while excluding others.
In their letter, the civil rights organizations, which also included... Read More