Bring a sandwich; light refreshments provided.  The film starts at 6:00 p.m.  Hosted by the Racial Justice Advocates.

 In 2022, members of The First Parish read Caste by Isabel Wilkerson.  This past spring we attended a Juneteenth Celebration sponsored by The Boston Foundation at which Isabel Wilkerson was a featured speaker.  We now have an opportunity to see a film, “Origin”, by writer-director, Ava DuVernay,  which depicts Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson as she researches her 2020 book, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents.”

Du Vernay weaves together 4 major storylines moving between Nazi Germany, the Jim Crow South, post-independence India, and Wilkerson’s own personal story linking social hierarchies or caste in different settings, and the ways in which they lead to dehumanization, violence, and mass suffering.

The film has received excellent reviews for the performances of the actors, for the ways it reveals commonalities among various forms of oppression and injustice, for the sensitive portrayal of Wilkerson’s journey as a scholar and a journalist, and for sense of possibilities for empowerment leading to mutual respect and social justice.  “Origin” stars Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor as Isabel Wilkerson and co-stars Jon Bernthal, Niecy Nash-Betts, Vera Farmiga , Audra McDonald and Blair Underwood.