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The delicate coating of truths outlined in Origin, Director Ava DuVernay's adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winner, Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, gives life to the notion that "race is not where the line is drawn." Wilkerson's work weaves together the atrocities imposed on Jews at the hand of Nazi Germany, the plight of India's Dalit, and the lives of descendants of Africa in America in a way that we've never it seen done before. DuVernay gives visual life to these truths that we've all known, in a way that will be branded in our hearts and minds forever.
Where the retelling of historical truths usually seeks to divide us, grading one tragic campaign against humanity higher than the next, Origin tethers us together in a single mass. It stretches the boundaries of our empathy, forcing us to see ourselves and each other, beyond the scope of race.
The layering in of Wilkerson's own boundary-defying love and the loss she endures is the antithesis of the caste systems she worked so brilliantly to highlight, creating a proof positive example of what love without boarders makes possible. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal champion the relationship between Isabel and Brett, creating a palpable iteration of love that is diametrically opposed to the essence of the systems they sought to expose. Their union is a picture of what you get when you're inspired to look beyond the 'worn grooves of routine and expectation.'
The visual representation of the late Trayvon Martin is a brief balm for the grief of a death we mourned publicly without the pleasure of having seen the life that existed prior to his untimely end-still with the stark reminder of what precipitated his loss. Similarly, the depiction of Al Bright in 1951 being humiliated at the pool-as a child without the frame of reference for the moment he was made to maneuver, as the privileged looked on-illustrates the forced coming of age Black children have and continue to endure in America. The addition of Bhimrao Ambedkar's journey from untouchable child to his heralded return home, creates a parallel between cultures that further proves that race is not where the line is drawn. The depictions of incidents decades apart, and cultures removed-equally dehumanizing at their core, brandishing the stunted growth of our respective nations' humanity, against the backdrop of a world similarly stunted prove that these injustices cannot simply be packaged as racism.
The cinematic shifts from Trayvon's life-altering moment, to Al Bright's, to August and Irma's, and even Betty and Allison Davis' tells a story of its own-the lens through which we see the injustices of our world sharpens as time moves and inevitably pushes the true core of the isms into focus. As our clarity unfolds, so should our reflections of the times.
The imagery of Trayvon Martin's final moments overlapping the slaying of the Jewish woman, fading into the Dalit man emerging from the excrement, and cutting to the visual of bare Black bodies stacked together like fish caught in a net creates a provocative through line for our understanding of our shared experiences of inhumanity. It echoes the grief we feel for the plight with which we feel most closely connected-creating a single mass of undifferentiated bodies in a new way. A way that shows us that without the blinders of race, we can and should feel that same grief for others.
Origin is a film layered with defiance: Trayvon's defiance of where he was supposed to walk and how he was supposed to respond to the manifestation of caste that he was presented with; Isabel and Brett's defiance of their boundaries in love while championing social justice; The defiance of the Dr. Allison Davis and his wife, the African American anthropologists studying in Berlin as the divide threatened their work and their lives; and August Landmesser's defiance of his Nazi pledge, traded in for his forbidden love, Irma Eckler-a defiance that allowed him to see her humanity, beauty, and love above all else.
While "caste is not simply hatred," the defiance we see is born out of a love made pure in sacrifice-a force more powerful than fear. In the end, the only thing truly untouchable is that love and the light it continues to inspire.
Ava's direction of Origin masterfully adds to the brilliance in direction of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, creating an experience so saturated in introspection that one cannot justify sitting on the sidelines of any humanitarian crisis. When any of our freedoms are in threatened by 'symbols of hate and diets of violence,' all of our freedoms are in peril.
Where the retelling of historical truths usually seeks to divide us, grading one tragic campaign against humanity higher than the next, Origin tethers us together in a single mass. It stretches the boundaries of our empathy, forcing us to see ourselves and each other, beyond the scope of race.
The layering in of Wilkerson's own boundary-defying love and the loss she endures is the antithesis of the caste systems she worked so brilliantly to highlight, creating a proof positive example of what love without boarders makes possible. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor and Jon Bernthal champion the relationship between Isabel and Brett, creating a palpable iteration of love that is diametrically opposed to the essence of the systems they sought to expose. Their union is a picture of what you get when you're inspired to look beyond the 'worn grooves of routine and expectation.'
The visual representation of the late Trayvon Martin is a brief balm for the grief of a death we mourned publicly without the pleasure of having seen the life that existed prior to his untimely end-still with the stark reminder of what precipitated his loss. Similarly, the depiction of Al Bright in 1951 being humiliated at the pool-as a child without the frame of reference for the moment he was made to maneuver, as the privileged looked on-illustrates the forced coming of age Black children have and continue to endure in America. The addition of Bhimrao Ambedkar's journey from untouchable child to his heralded return home, creates a parallel between cultures that further proves that race is not where the line is drawn. The depictions of incidents decades apart, and cultures removed-equally dehumanizing at their core, brandishing the stunted growth of our respective nations' humanity, against the backdrop of a world similarly stunted prove that these injustices cannot simply be packaged as racism.
The cinematic shifts from Trayvon's life-altering moment, to Al Bright's, to August and Irma's, and even Betty and Allison Davis' tells a story of its own-the lens through which we see the injustices of our world sharpens as time moves and inevitably pushes the true core of the isms into focus. As our clarity unfolds, so should our reflections of the times.
The imagery of Trayvon Martin's final moments overlapping the slaying of the Jewish woman, fading into the Dalit man emerging from the excrement, and cutting to the visual of bare Black bodies stacked together like fish caught in a net creates a provocative through line for our understanding of our shared experiences of inhumanity. It echoes the grief we feel for the plight with which we feel most closely connected-creating a single mass of undifferentiated bodies in a new way. A way that shows us that without the blinders of race, we can and should feel that same grief for others.
Origin is a film layered with defiance: Trayvon's defiance of where he was supposed to walk and how he was supposed to respond to the manifestation of caste that he was presented with; Isabel and Brett's defiance of their boundaries in love while championing social justice; The defiance of the Dr. Allison Davis and his wife, the African American anthropologists studying in Berlin as the divide threatened their work and their lives; and August Landmesser's defiance of his Nazi pledge, traded in for his forbidden love, Irma Eckler-a defiance that allowed him to see her humanity, beauty, and love above all else.
While "caste is not simply hatred," the defiance we see is born out of a love made pure in sacrifice-a force more powerful than fear. In the end, the only thing truly untouchable is that love and the light it continues to inspire.
Ava's direction of Origin masterfully adds to the brilliance in direction of Isabel Wilkerson's Caste, creating an experience so saturated in introspection that one cannot justify sitting on the sidelines of any humanitarian crisis. When any of our freedoms are in threatened by 'symbols of hate and diets of violence,' all of our freedoms are in peril.
We all remember the obnoxious little thing we did with our siblings and friends as kids. The thing that happened just as some game ended with someone being upset about something- just before a parent got called. The victim of childish misdeeds would ask to not be touched but in an attempt to save face and rebel against being reprimanded by a peer, the offender would hover their hand just near enough to be annoying and say, "I'm not touching you."
Gene Stupnitsky and John Phillip's "No Hard Feelings" starring Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman play this game of "I'm not touching you" with sexual impropriety. I dare not use the p-word, lest this becomes an allegation. Nevertheless, despite the chance to see our forever Katniss Everdeen in her most hilarious role since "Don't Look Up" we were made to grimace at all the scenes where our writers and director bring us to the brink of what, in our real world, would be a sexual misconduct case, and then says, "I'm not touching you," in that same mischief-ridden way we did as kids before we knew better.
As I watched, I fought the temptation to find something on my phone to focus on. I began to obsess about how old the actor who portrayed Percy was in real life because maybe he was a young-in-the-face 30-year-old, and maybe that would make me feel less complicit in the normalization of inappropriate relationships for sporadically laughing.
I fought the idea of being that person who couldn't just see something and let it be what it is without turning it into something it wasn- and that's when I realized it. It wasn't me turning it into something it wasn't. It already was that something.
In recent years, men in the industry have caught hell (rightfully so) with the Me Too Movement, where their misdeeds caught up to them in staggering numbers of people speaking out about the discomfort and straight-up pain they've been made to feel in their work environments.
The one true error in the movement was all of the women who weren't called to the carpet for their crimes because young men are socialized to wear attention from older women as a badge pinned to the sash of their manhood.
What I expected from this film was a fresh take on 2006's showdown between Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey in Failure to Launch.
What I got was; "let's forcefully deflower an awkward, traumatized teenager. But let's make it be because his parents are asking," so that I'm not touching you.
"And then after she fails to sexually assault him properly, he'll start to like her, then it will be consensual," so still, I'm not touching you.
"and then let's make sure they never actually do it because that would actually be improper and probably get us canceled" I'm definitely not touching you.
"But it's cool if they get naked in his childhood bed with his parents in the other room, then he'll actually attempt to do the deed but it won't count because, in his inexperience, he didn't realize it was just her thigh" haha I'm not touching you!
Let's do the thing where we reverse the roles. Had it been a 30+-year-old man and a 19- year-old high school girl, phones would be ringing, think pieces would be written, and everyone behind the project would be proverbially chased by an angry mob.
The thing is if I told you the story of 32-year-old Maddie Barker and 19-year-old Percy Becker without the lights, cameras, and the Oscar-winning actress, you'd cringe. Love to the comedic stylings of Jennifer Lawrence but, why does the big screen loosen our scruples?
Gene Stupnitsky and John Phillip's "No Hard Feelings" starring Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Barth Feldman play this game of "I'm not touching you" with sexual impropriety. I dare not use the p-word, lest this becomes an allegation. Nevertheless, despite the chance to see our forever Katniss Everdeen in her most hilarious role since "Don't Look Up" we were made to grimace at all the scenes where our writers and director bring us to the brink of what, in our real world, would be a sexual misconduct case, and then says, "I'm not touching you," in that same mischief-ridden way we did as kids before we knew better.
As I watched, I fought the temptation to find something on my phone to focus on. I began to obsess about how old the actor who portrayed Percy was in real life because maybe he was a young-in-the-face 30-year-old, and maybe that would make me feel less complicit in the normalization of inappropriate relationships for sporadically laughing.
I fought the idea of being that person who couldn't just see something and let it be what it is without turning it into something it wasn- and that's when I realized it. It wasn't me turning it into something it wasn't. It already was that something.
In recent years, men in the industry have caught hell (rightfully so) with the Me Too Movement, where their misdeeds caught up to them in staggering numbers of people speaking out about the discomfort and straight-up pain they've been made to feel in their work environments.
The one true error in the movement was all of the women who weren't called to the carpet for their crimes because young men are socialized to wear attention from older women as a badge pinned to the sash of their manhood.
What I expected from this film was a fresh take on 2006's showdown between Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew McConaughey in Failure to Launch.
What I got was; "let's forcefully deflower an awkward, traumatized teenager. But let's make it be because his parents are asking," so that I'm not touching you.
"And then after she fails to sexually assault him properly, he'll start to like her, then it will be consensual," so still, I'm not touching you.
"and then let's make sure they never actually do it because that would actually be improper and probably get us canceled" I'm definitely not touching you.
"But it's cool if they get naked in his childhood bed with his parents in the other room, then he'll actually attempt to do the deed but it won't count because, in his inexperience, he didn't realize it was just her thigh" haha I'm not touching you!
Let's do the thing where we reverse the roles. Had it been a 30+-year-old man and a 19- year-old high school girl, phones would be ringing, think pieces would be written, and everyone behind the project would be proverbially chased by an angry mob.
The thing is if I told you the story of 32-year-old Maddie Barker and 19-year-old Percy Becker without the lights, cameras, and the Oscar-winning actress, you'd cringe. Love to the comedic stylings of Jennifer Lawrence but, why does the big screen loosen our scruples?