--- title: Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala | TIME description: Ava DuVernay gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. canonical: https://time.com/video/RvV2dSIb/ og:title: Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala og:description: Ava DuVernay gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. og:url: https://time.com/video/RvV2dSIb/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/RvV2dSIb/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala twitter:description: Ava DuVernay gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/RvV2dSIb/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala [Watch (HLS stream): Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RvV2dSIb.m3u8) (4:04)  _Published 2017-04-26. Ava DuVernay gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala._ --- Jul 27, 2023 9:50 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [George Church Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala](/video/pAf2J5JH/) ### George Church Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala [Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala](/video/DMLp5DHI/) ### Viola Davis Toasts The 2017 Time 100 Gala [Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo on ](/video/H4cNz19h/) ### Ava DuVernay and David Oyelowo on --- ## Transcript I just want to say thank you to the Time 100. This was something that it kind of shook me when I heard about it. I felt a little uncomfortable with it to be honest with you. I had to really The idea of influence for myself. Just cuz I'm one of those people who just can't let it be, enjoy it myself. And so really try to think about that and explore it, and the idea of influence in my own life. And when I was asked to give this toast to someone who has influenced me, there was only one person who came to mind. It was a woman that I knew who thrived on being influenced. In the most beautiful ways, a deeply caring and dynamic woman named Denise Amanda Sexton. She was born in 1950. She was from Compton, California. She is a single woman, an unmarried woman, elapsed Catholic in search of spirituality out there in the world somewhere. She was a registered nurse. An avid reader, a news junkie. I mean, just come on, Denise. We got to watch the news again? A lover of the arts, a fervent lover of the arts. It was her life's love. And an aunt To five children of her only sister Darlene, my mom. My aunt Dynnis for 20 years chose to work at night, she was a night nurse in Compton, s he would take the bus, sometimes two hours away to her assignment. She would tend to people who were ailing at night o that during the day she could tend to her self She worked by night so that she could read books by day and see films, and go to museums, and watch the news, and learn and grow. She loved drinking new information, ne. She was nurse. So she would talk about medical achievements and science. She was interested in spirituality so she would study the stars and astronomy. She would read articles on NASA. She loved poetry and books. I mean one of those people, just like wow, you're a sponge. You love to learn and she did all that I realized. So that she can turn around and teach her nieces and nephews all that she learned, all that knew, all that she had [ INAUDIBLE ], all that she been influenced by. She opened my window to the world, which for me was the image cinema. We take the bus to the movies. And we'd see the movie, and then we'd talk, and talk, and talk and talk about it afterwards. Which, for a little girl, is a big deal when someone just talks to you. And I'd learn from here, and I'd grow. And I understood deeply, at that young age, as a black woman, as a black girl, as a black woman, movies affected the way I saw myself. And the way that I was seen by other people. And I came to understand the power of the image deeply. And I fell in love with it. So Denise has ascended to another realm, one of those realms that she would always study, triggered by cancer, something else that she also studied. That was over a decade now. But she's with me every day. Especially in a room like this. Well she, sorry, would be in awe of everybody here just like I am. Giving the power of influence to great minds and spirits that she'd meet because I understand fully through Denise that influence is a privilege that relies on people giving it to you. And she gave it freely to so many aspects of people doing great work in the world. So I just want to raise a glass to my ultimate influencer, my aunt Denise Amanda Sexton of Compton, California. And to your Denise, whoever your Denise is Remember that person in your mind and raise a glass. Cheers, thank you for having me. [ APPLAUSE ] ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Ava DuVernay Toasts the 2017 TIME 100 Gala","description":"Ava DuVernay gives a toast at the 2017 TIME 100 Gala. ","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/RvV2dSIb/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2017-04-26T03:22:50.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/RvV2dSIb.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/video/RvV2dSIb/","duration":"PT4M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/video/RvV2dSIb/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}} ```