Ava DuVernay is being honored at home. The ACLU of Southern California will give the filmmaker its Bill of Rights Award on December 9, Variety reported exclusively on Friday, November 13. The award is tied to her new Netflix documentary, 14th.

The ceremony is a private event at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles. It falls on the eve of Human Rights Day, and the evening includes a special screening of 14th, a conversation with DuVernay and a reception.

The ACLU SoCal says the award recognizes her contributions to civil rights, civil liberties and social justice through storytelling. Executive director Chandra Bhatnagar told Variety that DuVernay's work has pushed audiences to face injustice for more than a decade, and that it has deepened public understanding of the Constitution.

"I Intend to Keep Giving Mine"

DuVernay grew up in the Los Angeles area, and she pointed to that in her statement. Being recognized in the city that raised her is a deep honor, she said. Then she turned it into a to-do list. The rights people cherish need more than admiration, she said: "They require our participation. And I intend to keep giving mine."

This is not her first time in front of this group. In 2019 the ACLU SoCal honored her for When They See Us, her Netflix limited series about the Central Park Five.

From 13th to 14th

14th arrives ten years after 13th, her Oscar-nominated documentary on mass incarceration. The new film looks at the Fourteenth Amendment and its promises of citizenship, equal protection and due process. Historians, legal scholars, elected leaders and advocates walk through how those promises are still being fought over, from immigration to voting rights.

DuVernay directed and produced the film with longtime collaborators Spencer Averick, Tammy Garnes and Paul Garnes. It comes from her company, ARRAY Filmworks.

The documentary had its world premiere on October 9 as the closing night film of the New York Film Festival. It opens in select theaters in the U.S. and U.K. on November 27 and starts streaming on Netflix on December 4.

So the award lands five days after the film reaches Netflix subscribers around the world. Good timing for a director who has never treated a release date like the end of the conversation.