Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League takes place all over mighty Africa, showing viewers the roads of Senegal, the promising players of Egypt, and more. All of them are going to Rwanda, the host of the first BAL championships.
The BAL championships happen for a week but that week exists for several reasons. Origin shows the African infrastructure like NBA youth camps producing potential players. The docuseries also sits down with luminaries who believe in the talent in Africa.
Origin juggles a lot of themes, like relationships between the global north and south, giving a poppy approach to that subject matter with the J Cole subplot. I knew about J Cole playing in the CBL but the BAL means more to him.
Africa takes the spotlight in Origin, showing it through multiple perspectives, local and diasporic. Outside of the Africa ‘vs’ the West differences, there are differences within the continent. The docuseries has obligatory interview moments where Masai defends talents in sub Saharan Africa.
TIFF screened two episodes of Origin which competently handled a lot of storylines, some of them showing player progress and stardom, others tackling how teams get funding. There are some angles of criticism towards funding, which is better than nothing.
Despite this, Origin thankfully isn’t too puff piece-y, subverting colonial gaze against Africa. The documentary series shows a continent that has its own star system, basketball player wise. It’s showing a continent that shows its worth to themselves and to the world.
- Rated: Unrated
- Genre: Documentary, sport
- Release Date: 9/08/2025
- Directed by: Richard Brown, Tebogo Malope
- Studio: Bell, ESPN
