[youtube id=”ezWiUTXB11A”] Nate Parker’s Birth Of A Nation, about the American slave rebellion led by Nat Turner, has become one of the most anticipated films of the year. Parker helped finance the movie, produced, wrote, directed and stars in the film that has an October release. He deliberately titled the film after D.W. Griffith’s Birth Of A Nation because he says:
“Griffith’s film relied heavily on racist propaganda to evoke fear and desperation as a tool to solidify white supremacy as the lifeblood of American sustenance. Not only did this film motivate the massive resurgence of the terror group the Ku Klux Klan and the carnage exacted against people of African descent, it served as the foundation of the film industry we know today. I’ve reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.”
The film won the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Competition at Sundance and Fox Searchlight bought worldwide rights to the movie in the biggest deal ever made at the festival. Birth Of A Nation comes out October 7th.
