"Origin" gets its streaming start on HULU!
Ava Duvernay's creative mind is epically poetic, sincere, brilliant, thought-provoking, and informative.
Origin is a 2023 American biographical drama film written and directed by Ava DuVernay. It is based on the life of Isabel Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she writes the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.
Origin premiered in competition at the 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 6, 2023, and began a limited theatrical release on January 19, 2024, by Neon. It is streaming on Hulu as of June 10, 2024.
This film digs deep into the very fabrication and makeup of what tools cause racial bias and how classism is also an underlying factor when it comes to segregation and racism. Origin gives insight into how caste systems, segregation tactics, and social injustices faced by people in certain set demos throughout the world are interconnected.
From the very beginning of the film it introduces and then goes on to follow multiple storylines. There a dramatization/reenactment of the last moment of life for African-American teen Trayvon Martin (Myles Frost) buying candy at a convenience store and chatting with a friend on his phone as he walks home. There’s a scene from 1930s Germany, where one man, August Landmesser (Finn Wittrock), refuses to raise his arm while standing amidst a crowd of fellow shipyard workers who heil the Nazi regime. There’s Allison (Isha Blaaker) and Elizabeth Davis (Jasmine Cephas Jones), a Black couple who were studying in Germany during the 1930s and witnessed Nazi marches and book burnings, and then there’s the main storyline set in modern day time that follows the main character, a journalist named Isabel. We see these past events and stories weave and intertwine throughout history on a global scale all the way to present day.
Duvernay’s directing is absolutely brilliant as you go back and forth in time as well as follow along in a current time frame with Isabel. Viewers see Isabel’s life begin to face many unforeseen challenges, emotional struggles, and deeply low moments. The film flows well as the story unfolds and the depth of the content is vastly informative, mind extending, provocative and emotionally heavy. The writing is truly masterful as Duvernay’s personal style mixed with “the heroes journey” and almost documentary feel dramatization plays out on screen.
The cinematographer beautifully captures a multitude of ethnicities and an abundance of cultures in a creative, personal, and truly spectacular way. The film is filled with substance, knowledge, and moments that make you reflect and consider the way that you not only view the world, but also the way in which you exist within society. The cinematic color palettes were used skillfully to set the tone for many scenes throughout the film.
Origin does not seek to efficaciously remove the underlying systematic and cultural factors that cause bigotry, racism, classism, ignorance, and hatred throughout the world, rather than this gripping and motivating film seeks to have one examine their own self, their beliefs, and their societal disposition, while inspiring and stimulating the viewer enough to reimagine their place in society and the origin that got them there.
Origin is streaming now on Hulu. Check out the trailer below.