Written and directed by Academy Award nominee Ava DuVernay, ORIGIN chronicles the tragedy and triumph of Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson as she investigates a global phenomenon of epic proportions. Portrayed by Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, Isabel experiences unfathomable personal loss and love as she crosses continents and cultures to craft one of the defining American books of our time. Inspired by Wilkerson’s nonfiction best-seller Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, ORIGIN explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance and a fight for the future of us all.
“Ava DuVernay’s ORIGIN is as audacious as it is ambitious. At its core, it concerns an intellectual argument about history and hierarchies of power, but it’s also about the fraught process of making this argument. It’s a daunting conceit that DuVernay has shaped into an eventful narrative that is, by turns, specific and far-ranging, diagnostic and aspirational. It is a great big swing about taking a great big swing…. Few American movies this year reach so high so boldly.” —Manohla Dargis, NYT Critic’s Pick, New York Times “Here, [DuVernay] is meditative, poetic, and nearly unfaltering…. Rich in thought, ORIGIN is a dense, forceful masterwork, and, quite simply, the most radical film of DuVernay’s career.” —Robert Daniels, rogerebert.com “Though we are often made to feel powerless, both Wilkerson and DuVernay believe that perhaps if we can see in the sky what’s missing here on earth, there’s a chance we can somehow bring it down to reality.” —Carlos Aquilar, The Playlist
