Ava DuVernay's newest movie 'Origin' tells story of 1st Black woman to win journalism Pulitzer

CHICAGO (WLS) -- "Origin," a provocative, powerful new movie from Ava DuVernay, tells the story of Isabel Wilkerson, the Chicago bureau chief of the New York Times and first Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for journalism.

Wilkerson is played by Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor. In the film, she's not just probing current-day racism, but searching for links between slavery in America and Jim Crowe, the Holocaust and the Nazis, and India's caste system.

"The story of this Black woman superhero, intellectual, this beautiful writer and former journalist who goes on this globetrotting journey to bring us the information," DuVernay said. "I think as a country we have an ongoing, cyclical issue with the way that we treat one another, division, a hierarchy of people with some feeling better than others and a real matrix of power and status that hurts people. That's not unique to now, it sounds like America always."

The project was very close to DuVernay's heart.

"It's the film that I've made that I'm most excited about," she said. "It's a culmination of all the other work I've made over the years. This was a globetrotting adventure for me as a filmmaker, we shot it in 37 days in three countries. We shot it independently outside the studio and streamer system."

"Origin" is playing in theaters, including multiple Chicago locations, now.

"That's the reason why I make the pictures, so it can move people, spark curiosity, promote engagement, people engage in conversations and wanting to talk and learn, and explore, that's really happening with this one," DuVernay said.