Origin Story

By: Michael Sun Lee

The courageous Los Angeles director, writer, actor ad producer Kulap Vilaysack’s feature documentary Origin Story is an investigation into her family’s past – a family she never knew existed.  At age 14, Kulap’s mother told her that her father was not her real biological father. This stuck with her for many, many years until her thirties when she decides to find out the truth about her birth parentage and their family’s past back in Laos.

This story begins cleverly via comic book or graphic novel style of how she found out that her father was not her real father.  Kulap defended her father in an argument her parents were having and her mother told her, “Why are you defending him? He is not your real father.” We learn quickly the effect this had on Kulap as she shares her frustration, curiosity, anger and her not so nice relationship she has with her mother.  While trying to find out the truth about her birth father, she finds out things about her childhood in Minnesota, truths about her current mother and father and why her biological father left.

Many family secrets come out as she tries to locate him.  She finds out that he has moved back to Laos so she contacts him and eventually decides to go meet him there.

Her family‘s past as refugees, their dramatic story of survival and how they came to arrive in the United States are revealed. We also see her coming to terms with her parents’ flaws and their difficult decisions they made to survive during the war and beyond.

Her origin story here is an open book to us throughout and Kulap’s investigation gives us an intimate look into her own feelings about her family’s past and present. And It shows us how we can learn to at least accept such familial revelations while still being realistic about the outcome.

The authenticity of Origin Story is entertaining and confronting. I laughed at the profanity, cried at the vulnerability and loved its humanity.  The story ends triumphantly but not perfectly.  Kulap’s relief and acceptance here seems to provide a cleansing for her as she experiences new great stories and challenges for the rest of her life.  Her mother said it best, “Yeah, I mean, you cannot erase the past but…you could move forward.”