‘Origin’s Ethics Were Present Off-Screen, Too

Ava DuVernay’s newest feature Origin recently expanded to more theaters nationwide, which is information you might be forgiven for missing the memo about given the almost non-existent marketing for the film (but also information that you would be wise to utilize now that you’ve stumbled upon it).

The film stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Pulitzer Prize-winning author Isabel Wilkerson, who, in the face of grief, sets out to lay the groundwork for her book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, her award-winning non-fiction title that highlights the caste system aspects of racism in the United States.

In other words, Origin is an unabashed story about a Black woman posing a piercing challenge to the United States’ historical—and, by extension, modern—institutions. According to Ellis-Taylor, the particular power implied by such a premise reverberated throughout the set from day one.

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ellis-Taylor mused on the somehow-still-radical idea of an American film focusing on the inner intellectual pursuits of a woman, and how that same raw depiction was echoed right down to the set’s logistics—namely, the lack of a trailer for even the film’s star.

We talked about just what you said: that you don’t get to see women thinking onscreen. You see that in foreign films, but you don’t see that in American filmmaking… She also said, “I want someone to walk and work with who does not need comfort on set.” She was very blunt about it. “I’m not going to have a trailer for you. You’re going to be thrust into humanity.” I was up and down for that.

In a perfect world, the dire state of Origin‘s marketing would be baffling given its weighty and ever-important subject matter, but unfortunately, it’s entirely likely that that very subject matter is precisely why we haven’t seen much buzz around Origin. Indeed, if last year’s Academy Awards (the same ceremony that snubbed both The Woman King and Till in favor of Top Gun: Maverick) have taught us anything, it’s that nothing terrifies Hollywood’s elite—be it a studio executive or anyone with an Oscar ballot—more than a powerful Black woman on a mission.

Origin is now playing in theaters nationwide. Go now, reader, and help make DuVernay’s latest impossible to ignore.

(featured image: Neon)