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350 CUSD Film Studies Students Attend ORIGIN Screenings

Media Release

Today, nearly 350 CUSD high school film studies students attended the Cinemark SouthBay Pavilion Mall in Carson for a showing of the new feature movie ORIGIN, written and directed by Academy Award-nominee Ava DuVernay and inspired by Isabel Wilkerson’s best-selling book “Caste.”

The opportunity was facilitated by Array, a multi-platform arts and social media impact collective dedicated to narrative change, founded in 2011 by filmmaker DuVernay.

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ORIGIN explores the mystery of history, the wonders of romance, and a fight for the future of us all. It features Academy Award nominee Aunjanue Ellis Taylor (“King Richard”), as well as Niecy Nash Betts, Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Nick Offerman, and Blair Underwood.

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Scholars from all four Compton Unified High Schools -- Centennial, Compton, Compton Early College, and Dominguez -- attended the movie screening. It was well received by the students who identified with the various themes and messages.

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Dominguez High School Senior Leonard Greer felt it was a very powerful movie that dealt with racial issues. “It showed me that not everything is going to go in your favor and sometimes you have to adapt to your life.”

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Compton Early College Senior Enrique Garcia related to the film. “I’d definitely recommend it. It helped me with my ethnic studies class because we’re studying something very similar in it.”