The focus groups who remain after an Origin test screening are moved in tears by what they’ve just seen, with deep conversations with other moviegoers on the pic’s social issues.
Similar Topic: Director Ava DuVernay Works On Adapting The Novel 'Caste'
Origin is based on Isabel Wilkerson’s 2020 bestseller non-fiction book titled Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents authored by Isabel Wilkerson. The book tracks the Pulitzer Prize winner’s creative and personal journey over several continents through grief, revelation and the evils of historical stratification.
Neon took global rights on Origin before its premiere at the Venice Film Festival where it received an eight-minute standing ovation. In the wake of its premiere, the movie stands at 85% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. With Origin, DuVernay became the first Black American woman to have a selection in the Venice Film Festival.
Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor plays Wilkerson. The movie contains strong and scary connections to today’s political realities, both domestic and international, from antiquity to India’s Dalit caste (once called Untouchables) to slavery in America and the segregation and violence of Jim Crow laws, and to the Nazis’ systematic persecution of Jews and the horrors of the Holocaust. The movie also stars Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas-Jones and Connie Nielsen.
The movie has an awards qualifying release in LA and NYC on Dec. 8 before opening on Jan. 19.
Source: Deadline