The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.The unspoken system that has shaped America and chronicles how lives today are defined by a hierarchy of human divisions.
- Awards
- 6 wins & 30 nominations
Niecy Nash
- Marion Wilkerson
- (as Niecy Nash-Betts)
Isha Blaaker
- Allison Davis
- (as Isha Carlos Blaaker)
Suraj Yengde
- Suraj Yengde, Ph.D.
- (as Suraj Yengde PhD)
Mike Topoozian
- Sales Executive
- (as Mike 'Spike' Topoozian)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaA Washington Post article titled "Budgets for 'prestige' films dried up. So Ava DuVernay found a new way." was released on 12/4/23; it details how DuVernay financed the film partly through grants, including from the Ford Foundation, which enabled her to make a bigger film.
- GoofsThe previous entry stated there was an anachronism with the plumber wearing a red MAGA hat at least 3 years before the first hat was ever made. This is incorrect, because the scene takes place after Isabel's mother had passed away, which was in December 2016. The red MAGA hat was a popular merchandise item during Donald Trumpov's campaign for U.S. president in which the election took place in November 2016.
- Quotes
Isabel Wilkerson: When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have brought. But choose not to look at your own peril.
Isabel Wilkerson: We're all like homeowners who've inherited a house on a piece of land that's beautiful on the outside. But the soil is unstable.
- SoundtracksI Am
Written by Stan Walker, Michael Fatkin, Vince Harder, Te Kanapu Anasta
Performed by Stan Walker
Produced by Michael Fatkin
Courtesy of Aki Aki, Sony Music Group, Universal Publishing Group, Harder Music Group
Featured review
Origin
The acting is all really quite adequate here, but it's not really that important to the fascinating underlying premiss that underpins the theory that race, in itself, might not be the reason for the hierarchical nature of a society that always manages to create sub-classes. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor offers her own engaging perspective on author Isabel Wilkerson who is invited by a publisher to offer a more considered and less reactionary appraisal of race relations following the murder of a young black man who just happened to be in the wrong place (a white neighbourhood) at the wrong time. The audience know full well from the outset what has happened here, so that's not especially important to the plot either - it's her search for a rationale. That search attempts to draw parallels between the plight of the African American citizenry with the victims of Holocaust and of the system of caste that prevails in India. By spending a section of the film in Germany and then in India, we are exposed to a more internationalist view of just why society is made up of the have lots, the haves and the have nots - and at just how little much of that has changed for centuries. The comparison she develops works surprisingly convincingly, if not without it's flaws, and Ellis-Taylor acts well as a sort of sponge for the philosophies that emerge. The one element that it rather studiously avoids is religion. That isolation does rather compromise the authenticity of any conclusion as it doesn't acknowledge that so often the behaviour and structures of cultures are dictated by those atop them in some form of priesthood - whether they be Brahmin or Cardinal. There are a few familial sub-plots to add a bit of drama to the story, but I found them a little unnecessary as the theory elaborates more. It does come from a very specific American perspective - I'd be interested to see how it might turn out if it were to be remade from a Jewish or Indian point of view, but as it is - it's a thoughtful exercise in what makes human strata function and endure.
- CinemaSerf
- Mar 13, 2024
- Permalink
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Details
Box office
- Budget
- $38,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $4,689,830
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $117,063
- Dec 10, 2023
- Gross worldwide
- $4,837,596
- Runtime2 hours 21 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
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