NEON has acquired “Selma” director Ava DuVernay’s new film “Origin” which is premiering at the Venice Film Festival. In addition, they’ve released the film’s first trailer.
The film is inspired by the life and work of Pulitzer Prize winner Isabel Wilkerson (played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor) as she pens her seminal 2020 book “Caste: The Origin of Our Discontents”.
While grappling with tremendous personal tragedy, Isabel sets herself on a path of global investigation and discovery. Despite the colossal scope of her project, she finds beauty and bravery while crafting the seminal work.
The book itself describes racism in the United States as an aspect of a caste system – a society-wide system of social stratification characterized by notions such as hierarchy, inclusion and exclusion, and purity.
The cast for the film includes Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, Finn Wittrock, Jasmine Cephas-Jones, and Connie Nielsen.
DuVernay wrote, directed and produced the film which will play the Fall film festival circuit ahead of a release later this year.
