Ava DuVernay Says She ‘Broke Every Narrative Rule’ With New Movie ‘Origin’

Writer-director Ava DuVernay took questions from the audience following the first New York screening of Origin at the snazzy Whitby Hotel screening room on Tuesday evening. Joined by her producer Paul Garnes, composer Kris Bowers and cinematographer Matthew Lloyd, the Selma and When They See Us director spoke about transforming Isabel Wilkerson’s bestselling nonfiction work Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents into a narrative film.

The movie’s approach is unusual. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor stars as Wilkerson, a Pulitzer-winning reporter. She is approached by an editor following the death of Trayvon Martin and asked to write about it. She demurs, as she is caring for her dying mother (Emily Yancy). Suddenly, her husband (Jon Bernthal) dies. Despite the double-whammy of grief — or, perhaps because of it — she begins to conceive a theory of hate crimes and bias as being less about race than about caste. The film then follows her on her research journey to Germany to study Nazism, and to India to meet with leaders in the ongoing civil rights movement for the Dalit, or “Untouchable” caste. 

“About 60 percent of the film is not in the book,” DuVernay explained. “Her personal life is not in the book,” she continued, adding that of the historical moments represented, about half of those were derived from DuVernay’s curiosity about characters introduced by Wilkerson. 

“You know when you come out of a movie and immediately start googling?” she joked, citing the scenes about four anthropologists (a white couple and a Black couple) who authored the book Deep South in 1941. “There’s one line that says the Davises traveled abroad, but I later discovered they went to Germany and witnessed the book burnings.”

A 1933 book-burning rally is recreated in the movie in the actual location where it took place. For an independent film — shooting in a country where it is illegal to show a swastika (as is discussed in the movie) — this made for some real challenges. The sequence, originally scheduled for three nights, was done in just one, with five cameras rolling. (It happened also to be during the Berlin Film Festival.)

The lower budget, however, was a necessary trade-off for DuVernay, who explained that a major studio would never agree to her unconventional screenplay. “Who’s the antagonist? Where’s the bad guy? Where’s the act one break?” she joked, mimicking studio notes while recognizing that she “broke every narrative rule” with Origin’s script. 

Furthermore, she had to call in some favors. 

After spending multiple sessions with Wilkerson over Zoom and learning about her cousin Marion, she realized that only Niecy Nash could play the part. (Indeed, this wise comic relief character, who prompts the sometimes overly-intellectual Wilkerson to “say that again in English,” is spectacular and feels like a sure bet for Best Supporting Actress awards this year.) 

Nash was shooting the series The Rookie during Origin’s production but told the network she needed Fridays off for a few weeks so she could fly to Savannah, Ga., and work on this unique project. Her scenes were then filmed one Friday at a time. 

Origin, which debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival, will have a limited release on Dec. 8 in New York and Los Angeles (making it eligible for awards) and will then see a wide release from NEON on Jan. 19, 2024.