The director on her new film 'Origin' and what it shows about the disturbing roots of racism
James is a freelance writer for The i newspaper, covering film and television. He's also the author of several books on cinema, including The Making of Dunkirk and Die Hard: A Visual History., a deconstruction of racism and prejudice in America and around the world, was published. It could hardly have been more timely., hits UK cinemas this week. “People were looking for answers, looking for solutions, looking for something to hold onto, some anchor.
“We have to understand the components of race and what is it made of,” DuVernay argues, passionately, “and caste is the bedrock, it’s the foundation of any of the ‘isms’ – racism, sexism,.
‘Origin’ places writer Isabel Wilkerson’s book about global struggles against those she faced in her own life is an intriguing idea: a non-fiction book transformed into a fictionalised story about the making of the book. The spotlight is turned on Wilkerson as played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor at the 2022 Oscars for her work onplaces Wilkerson’s book about global struggles against those she faced in her own life, including the death of her mother.
The film also flashes back through history – including to 30s Berlin, when two young black American anthropologists are witness to the rise of the Nazis and terrifying scenes of book burning. One of the biggest revelations in both the book and the film is that during the drafting of the Nuremberg laws, Nazi lawyers studied American legislation – the so-calledthat enforced racial segregation in the Southern United States.