A leading author, Isabel Wilkerson is the first woman of African descent to win the Pulitzer Prize in journalism. In 2010, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration became a reference work upon its publication. Same in 2020, when his book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents came to shake many certainties about racism. Wilkerson explains, with abundant historical documentation, how racism in the United States is one of the manifestations of a more global caste system. In his film OriginAva DuVernay brings this innovative thesis to the big screen while making Isabel Wilkerson the protagonist of a fascinating “academic investigation story”.
It is indeed quite an experience that the director of the film gives us. Selma and the miniseries When They See Us ; an experience, in this case, both intellectual and emotional. And this is undoubtedly one of the keys to the success of the film: Ava DuVernay’s ability to stimulate, nourish and then satisfy both the intellect and the affect.
Using a camera that is always very mobile, very flexible, the filmmaker films numerous conversations during which the thoughts of Isabel Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, fantastic) become clearer. These exchanges sometimes take place in university and literary circles, sometimes during family meetings.
It is during these latter situations that Ava DuVernay shows herself to be particularly skillful. In that we then witness intimate exchanges between Isabel and her cousin and confidante, Marion (Niecy Nash-Betts, endearing and fair). Now, Marion is not at all intellectual, but she is curious about Isabel’s concerns and research, so she questions her. Above all, she forces Isabel to popularize her thoughts.
In doing so, it is Ava DuVernay herself who makes the mental process of the protagonist accessible to the audience, without betraying or oversimplifying. Truly, what the screenwriter and director accomplishes is remarkable.
Added to this are the great personal upheavals that occurred in Isabel Wilkerson’s life while thinking about and then writing her book… On this level, the successive bereavements are so numerous that an excess of melodrama lurks. However, here again, the filmmaker finds a balance: these moments are poignant, but not insistent.
In such a way that the epic and the intimate not only coexist, but constantly respond to each other.
Flow of thoughts
In this regard, DuVernay’s very fluid staging produces the effect of a dazzling flood of thoughts (this is fitting) which grabs us and transports us.
We are thus taken to different continents, in different eras, while certain discoveries of the heroine are reconstructed. We witness, for example, a sinister meeting of high-ranking Nazi officers who dissect the racial policies of Jim Crow in order to develop their own anti-Semitic measures.
Later, we follow black anthropologists Allison Davis and Mary R. Gardner risking their lives to investigate the “Deep South” ahead of the 1941 publication of their seminal study. Deep South. And there is Isabel herself, who, these days, is staying in India to interview Professor Suraj Yengde (who plays himself) on the subject of castes, including that of the untouchables…
So much material covered, and not the slightest hint of heaviness or length… Great film about a great woman and a great subject, Origin is as enlightening as it is captivating.