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When filmmaker Ava Duvernay first read a book about Trayvon Martin, "I thought there's a movie in there," she tells ABC News.
"But when I read it the second time, I started to hear her voice."
That book is Origin, a true story about the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman in Sanford, Fla., in 2012, and Duvernay was inspired to make a movie out of it, which she did with the help of a $1 million donation from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the New York Daily News reports.
"The movie is built on the idea that the struggle for justice and equality is a struggle," Duvernay says.
"It's not just about Trayvon Martin.
It's about the struggle for equality between white and black people, between women and men."
She says she wanted to make the movie not just about Trayvon, but about "the struggle for justice and equality for all people, no matter their race or gender."
She also wanted to use the movie to raise money for the Martin Center for Justice and Human Rights, which is trying to get more African-Americans into the criminal justice system.
The center's executive director, Cornell William Brooks, tells
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New Vineyard Philanthropy Group Supports Island Youth
MVYouth, a newly formed Vineyard philanthropy group with a mission to support Island youth, will pledge $4 million over the next four years to a diverse set of youth causes.