‘Origin’ Star Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor Understands the Power of Cinema

We’re just a day out from the wide theatrical release of Ava DuVernay’s Origin, and if it ends up flying under everyone’s radar (as its lack of marketing suggests it will), that might be one of the biggest cinematic tragedies of the year.

Starring Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, Origin follows her intellectual journey as she prepares to write Caste: The Origins of our Discontents, a non-fiction title that explores racism in the United States as an example of a caste system, and the enduring effects that said system has had on society.

Cinema is often at its best when audiences are challenged with provocative ideas, and Origin looks primed to offer up the most pronounced example of such a challenge. For Ellis-Taylor, that’s exactly why getting Origin made was so important. In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the actress remarked how the relative accessibility of cinema allows ideas from less-popular mediums, such as non-fiction books, to be introduced to more people.

Not everybody is like me and thinks that an afternoon spent in Barnes & Noble is a good time. But people love movies; people love going and sitting in a dark room with popcorn and being immersed into other worlds. It’s an opportunity for another life for this book: You can reach people who are not readers, people who are not academics, people who don’t read non-fiction, or don’t read at all. You can reach them in this cinematic space, and it democratizes the experience.

In the case of Origin, the matter of caste systems will be explored in a way that most people wouldn’t have (or even know of) the opportunity to observe, which is to say that many viewers will likely encounter the concept of caste for the very first time, assuming they’re lucky enough to be privy to an Origin screening in the first place.

Indeed, a film about a Black woman deconstructing American institutions? It’s no wonder Origin is barely getting any marketing support.

Origin will release to theaters tomorrow on January 19.

(featured image: Neon)