Origin Parent Guide

Author and Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) finds herself at odds with conventional wisdom. As she investigates the 2012 fatal shooting of Black teenager Trayvon Martin, Isabel is increasingly convinced that racism does not fully explain his death. To her mind, racism is simply one manifestation of a global social mechanism that fuels oppression - caste.

“Caste” is an unfamiliar term to most North Americans, but as Isabel concisely defines it, “Caste is the phenomenon of placing one group above another in hierarchy”. As she dives into historical research, Isabel believes that caste can explain the parallel experiences of Blacks in America, Jews in Nazi Germany, and the Dalit (previously referred to as Untouchables) in India. After multiple tragedies tear away at her life, Isabel throws herself into a global voyage of discovery to confirms her thesis that different manifestations of caste systems are at the root of the suffering of millions of human beings, past and present.

With Origin, director Ava DuVernay tries something new, using the life of a real-world author as a frame narrative for the book that she writes. (In fact, Isabel’s non-fiction book, Caste, hit the shelves in 2020, becoming a bestseller.) It’s a clever device, tying an author’s personal struggles to the historical tale she unfolds, but I don’t think it works. Caste is simultaneously too much and too little. The script tries over-stuff a two-and-a-quarter hour runtime – Isabel’s losses, her intellectual curiosity, her family’s past along with the Atlantic slave trade, Jim Crow segregation, the Nazi Holocaust, and the lethally rigid caste system of India. As a result, it feels as if there’s never enough time to cover the fascinating histories unearthed here. The repeated bouncing between topics slows the film’s momentum and can leave viewers feeling bored. What Caste needs to be is a miniseries. After I watched it, I sketched out a two-season non-fiction miniseries based on this material that I would love to see. The material is here: it just needs a more expansive canvas.

I appreciate this film’s good intentions, but I am concerned over its public appeal. After all, I am the target market for a production like this. I love history and have a passionate commitment to alleviating poverty and eliminating oppression and injustice. If this film doesn’t score a home run with me, how will it fare with a less nerdy audience?

Adults considering this film for family or classroom viewing can be guided by the PG-13 rating. Note that some teens might be disturbed by the re-enactment of Trayvon Martin’s death or upsetting moments from history. Scenes from Nazi concentration camps, the hold of a slave ship, and a lynching are also distressing. None of the violence is gratuitous or gory, but it is painful to watch. To be fair, that is the point. Isabel Wilkerson wrote her book to show the horrors of caste systems throughout history, so it shouldn’t be surprising that her film is horrifying. If we don’t learn from the past, we are condemned to repeat it, so maybe we should pay attention to Isabel’s warning voice.