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While much of the talk surrounding this year’s Venice Film Festival has been about three men who stand accused of heinous offenses, the 80th edition of the fest also made history: Ava DuVernay, whose film Origin is premiering at the fest, became the first African American woman to have a film performing in competition on the Lido.
Origin is an adaptation of Isabel Wilkerson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, which explores how caste systems in different societies across the world have fostered racism. DuVernay’s film features Oscar-nominated actress Aunjanue Ellis as Wilkerson, and combines the book’s themes with biographical details from Wilkerson’s life. Neon acquired the U.S. distribution rights to Origin just prior to its Venice debut. Origin also stars Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts, Nick Offerman, Blair Underwood, and Victoria Pedretti.
During the film’s Venice press conference, DuVernay described the film as “half-adaptation, half-dramatization of [Wilkerson’s] life,” and was “a step-by-step process that she participated in.” DuVernay said she spoke with Wilkerson for about a year and that “all the stories that we see in the film, she told me.”
DuVernay chose to open Origin on an image of the late Trayvon Martin’s face (played by Myles Frost) because Wilkerson “shared with me that the seed of the idea for the book began with the murder of Trayvon Martin, and I am very affected by the murder of Trayvon Martin, so that became a touchpoint for us.”
That she is the first African American woman with a film in competition at the Venice Film Festival is just the latest trailblazing moment for DuVernay, who was also the first African American woman to be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars, and the first African American woman to direct a movie with a $100 million budget. Still, the distinction was not lost on DuVernay.
“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love films in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films,” she said. “This is something that we are often told —you cannot play international film festivals, no one will come, people will not come to your press conference, people will not come to the P&I screenings, they will not be interested in selling tickets, you may not even get into this festival, so don’t apply. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told not to apply to Venice, you won’t get in. It won’t happen. And this year, it happened.”
She said that her new film Origin has finally “opened the door, and I trust and hope that the festival will keep it open.”
