Origin (DuVernay, 2023)
Origin is a film I’ve found myself thinking a lot about since it arrived almost unnoticed in cinemas a year ago.
Simultaneously inspired by, and an adaptation of, Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, the film challenges us to think again about the issue of racism. Not its impacts (which are visible and to a degree addressable) but its origins, which for many people is a much more uncomfortable topic.
Wilkerson (Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) is an academic and author living a life that, from the outside at least, appears to be insulated from bigotry. She lives in middle-class security, has a tenured university position and a loving white husband (Jon Bernthal).
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The film draws parallels between the racism that Black people in America continue to experience (based on clearly identifiable racial characteristics), antisemitism (not usually based on how someone looks) and the pernicious continued prevalence of the caste system among Hindus in India – a prejudice that occurs within racial boundaries.
So, if this kind of dehumanisation can occur without clear racial or skin colour rationalisations, she asks, what is it that we are actually seeing?
I went quite long on it back in April 2024 and have removed the paywall1 so that everyone can go and read the whole thing rather than just these extracts. As a bonus, you’ll also get my reviews of the almost-notorious Challengers, the very bloody Abigail and excellent documentary Mad About the Boy: The Noël Coward Story.
Where to watch Origin
Aotearoa: Streaming on Neon
Australia: Streaming on FoxtelNow or Binge
Canada, Ireland & UK : Streaming on Prime Video
India: Streaming on Netflix
USA: Streaming on Hulu or Kanopy
The Funerals & Snakes Substack archive posts normally go behind a subscriber paywall after 30 days. The original Capital Times era version of Funerals & Snakes remains free to everyone.
