Ava DuVernay’s upcoming film “Origin” has an educational element she believes young people should experience. To that end, she wants 10,000 16-year-olds the opportunity to do so for free.

DuVernay took the stage at TEDWomen 2023 in Atlanta this weekend to talk about her film and initiative with host Pat Mitchell.

“I need to make sure it [the film] gets to the audience, that it reaches folks, that it’s understood, that it’s interrogated, that it’s shared,” the director said, according to Upworthy.

“So, I have this crazy idea that I want every 16-year-old in the country to see the film for free if they want.”

DuVernay introduced Seat16.com, a platform allowing anyone to contribute $16 to fund a teenager's ticket. The website, which reads "Let's help them change the world,” is designed to raise $160,000 so that 10,000 young people can see “Origin” for free.

“Origin” which opens in theaters on Dec. 23, is adapted from Isabel Wilkerson's non-fiction book, "Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents." The film explores the author's theory on a functioning caste system in American society and its parallels with similar systems in India and Nazi Germany.

The movie stars Aunjanue Ellis, Audra McDonald, Niecy Nash-Betts and Blair Underwood. Production spanned three countries and the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

DuVernay shared that she feels young people are in a vulnerable situation as they attempt to understand the world and their place in it.

“The idea that, at that age, you’re starting to interrogate your place in the world, and what the world means to you, and how you fit in, it’s such a tender age, especially at this time, that young people be able to autonomous in what they learn,” DuVernay said.

“That they’re not told what they can’t learn. That they’re able to read what they want to read, see what they want to see. So, that’s our little solution.”