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DISCLAIMER: IN NO WAY I'M PROMOTING OR GLORIFYING THE KKK NOR THE DEPICTION OF AMERICANS OF AFRICAN DECENT BY POSTING THIS MOVIE.
The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed and co-produced by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr., as well as Dixon's novel The Leopard's Spots. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods, and co-produced the film with Harry Aitken. It was released on February 8, 1915.
The film is three hours long and was originally presented in two parts separated by an intermission; it was the first 12-reel film in the United States. The film chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era over the course of several years: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.
The film was a commercial success, though it was highly controversial for its portrayal of black men (many played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a heroic force.[There were widespread black protests against The Birth of a Nation, such as in Boston, while thousands of Bostonians flocked to see the film. The NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to ban the film.Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year.
The film's release is also credited as being one of the events that inspired the reformation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. The Birth of a Nation was the first American motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson.Griffith's innovative techniques and storytelling power have made The Birth of a Nation one of the landmarks of film history.
In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
It was also the first film to have a sequel in film history, The Fall Of A Nation (1916) now considered a lost film.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation
The Birth of a Nation (originally called The Clansman) is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed and co-produced by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from the novel and play The Clansman, both by Thomas Dixon Jr., as well as Dixon's novel The Leopard's Spots. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods, and co-produced the film with Harry Aitken. It was released on February 8, 1915.
The film is three hours long and was originally presented in two parts separated by an intermission; it was the first 12-reel film in the United States. The film chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction Era over the course of several years: the pro-Union Northern Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Southern Camerons. The assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth is dramatized.
The film was a commercial success, though it was highly controversial for its portrayal of black men (many played by white actors in blackface) as unintelligent and sexually aggressive towards white women, and the portrayal of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) as a heroic force.[There were widespread black protests against The Birth of a Nation, such as in Boston, while thousands of Bostonians flocked to see the film. The NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to ban the film.Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year.
The film's release is also credited as being one of the events that inspired the reformation of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. The Birth of a Nation was the first American motion picture to be screened inside the White House, viewed there by President Woodrow Wilson.Griffith's innovative techniques and storytelling power have made The Birth of a Nation one of the landmarks of film history.
In 1992, the Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry
It was also the first film to have a sequel in film history, The Fall Of A Nation (1916) now considered a lost film.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation