New Movie 'Origin'- Filmmaker Ava DuVernay Illuminates America's Racial Caste System: NPR

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With 'Origin,' Ava DuVernay illuminates America's racial caste system. NPR, Jan 15, 2024. Ed. 🎥

📖 When filmmaker Ava DuVernay first read Isabel Wilkerson's 2020 book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, she was so stunned, she reread it twice. The bestselling book draws a line between India's caste system, the hierarchies of Nazi Germany and the historic subjugation of Black people in the U.S. "It took me a really long time to wrap my mind around the idea that there's something underneath racism that's called caste," DuVernay says.

"It doesn't mean racism doesn't exist. It means the foundation, the root, the origin, underneath is the very simple premise — someone has to be better than someone else." DuVernay was warned that Caste was too complex to adapt into a film but with each reading she felt a story emerge more clearly. Her new movie, Origin, centers on Wilkerson, played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, as she explores how understanding the caste system can deepen our understanding of what Black people experience in America.
DuVernay describes it as "a film about a woman in pursuit of an idea."

[It's More Than Racism: Isabel Wilkerson Explains America's 'Caste' System RACE]

The movie opens with a portrayal of the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. DuVernay says Wilkerson cited Zimmerman's acquittal as the impetus behind the ideas she would write about in Caste. "I remember when [Wilkerson] was sharing that with me, I thought, 'Oh, wow, could [the film] open on that? Could the spark that sparked her spark the film?'" DuVernay says. "Trying to stay close to and honor her process, her life, her genius — I wanted to start where she started."

- DuVernay's previous films include the historical drama Selma, about Martin Luther King Jr.'s 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., & 13th, an Oscar-nominated documentary about mass incarceration. Her 2019 Netflix drama series, When They See Us, tells the story of the 5 young men who were falsely convicted in the 1989 Central Park jogger case. * DuVernay hopes that by releasing Origin in 2024 - an election year- the film will contribute to the country's ongoing conversation about race and power...
https://www.npr.org/2024/01/15/1224037292/caste-ava-duvernay-origin
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- Ava Marie DuVernay (b. Aug. 24, 1972) is an American filmmaker. She is a recipient of a Primetime Emmy Award, a NAACP Image Award, a BAFTA Film Award & a BAFTA TV Award, as well as a nominee of an Academy Award & Golden Globe. After making her directoral debut, I Will Follow (2010), DuVernay won the directing award in the U.S. dramatic competition at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her 2nd feature film Middle of Nowhere, becoming the first black woman to win the award.

- For her work on Selma (2014), a biopic about Martin Luther King Jr., DuVernay became the 1st African-American woman to be nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Director; the film went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture.. In 2023 she directed the biographical film Origin based off the book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.. In 2017, DuVernay was included on the annual Time 100 list of the most influential people in the world. In 2020, she was elected to the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors as part of the directors branch...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ava_DuVernay

- 'Selma' (2014) movie trailer with Cuba Gooding, Jr., Oprah Winfrey. Selma is a historical drama film directed by Ava DuVernay & written by Paul Webb. It is based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches initiated & directed by James Bevel & led by Martin Luther King Jr., Hosea Williams, & John Lewis. The film stars actors David Oyelowo as King, Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B. Johnson, Tim Roth as George Wallace, Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King, & Common as Bevel...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selma_(film)

⭐ 'Selma' film scene - trying to Register to Vote, application process, Alabama 1965.