Venice Film Festival Screens First Ever Work In Competition By Woman African-American Ava DuVernay

Ava DuVernay’s Origin, which premiered at the 80th edition of the Venice Film Festival on Wednesday night, turned out to an exciting drama adapted from the Isabel Wilkerson’s book, Caste: The Origin of Our Discontent. It narrates Wilkerson’s own story with brutal depictions of the Holocaust, slavery and – wait a minute – India’s caste system!

Origin created history. For, it is the first time in the 80 year history of Venice that an African-American woman has had her movie vying for the top Golden Lion prize. Her previous directing credits include “Middle of Nowhere” (2012), which won the directing award at the Sundance Film Festival, and “Selma” (2014), which was nominated for best picture at the Oscars. Something incredibly unbelievable emerged at the Press conference soon after the Origin was screened for the media. She said that she had earlier been warned not to apply to Venice because she will not get in.

“For Black filmmakers, we’re told that people who love movies in other parts of the world don’t care about our stories and don’t care about our films. This is something that we are often told: you cannot play international movie festivals, no one will come,” DuVernay said.

“People will not come to the press conferences, people won’t come to the P&I screenings. They will not be interested in selling tickets. You might not even get into this Festival, don’t apply. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been told, ‘Don’t apply to Venice, you won’t get in. It won’t happen. And this year, something happened that hadn’t happened in eight decades before: an African American woman in competition. So now that’s a door open that I trust and hope the festival will keep open.”

Variety film critic Peter Debruge, described Origin as a “monumental look” at racism in review adding, that it’s a “dense and dazzling movie.” On another front, Woody Allen’s 50th creation, Coup de Chance, set in Paris and in the French language, was termed by some as his best in a long time – or after Blue Jasmine in 2013. But the 87-year-old director’s work, probably his last, was not welcomed by all. Outside the screening venue, topless protestors shouted “ turn the spotlight off of rapists”.

Starring Lou de Laâge and Melvil Poupaud, Coup de Chance is a dramatic thriller about a married woman who reconnects with an old flame, which drives her possessive husband to thoughts of murder. This competes the trilogy of “killer inside me” — with Crimes and Misdemeanours and Matchpoint.