I've seen Birth of a Nation twice. First in an Intro to Cinema class 15 years ago. The instructor showed this film every semester and Triumph of the Will and a racist cartoon from the 40s called Coal Black and the Seben Dwarves. He stated that these were important films, important to the history of cinematography and filmmaking and he didn't want to hear anything about the messages. Which frankly sucked. I don't care how important any of them are to filmmaking you cannot show films like that without some kind of dialog. Needless to say every semester there would be a protest and every semester he'd keep on showing them without any dialog, discussion or historical context outside of the world of cinema. Personally, I think the professor was a racist
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I can understand seeing it if it were in a COLLEGE LEVEL educational setting, but to open it up to a public viewing, I see no reason what-so-ever to do that. Why in the world would anyone want this type of film to be out there to assist in reinforcing racist thinking? We work hard on a daily basis to rid this nation of its racism. There is no need to take yet another walk back through history to show how bad it was. In this day and age, it is well understood the wrongs that were done to black people and we are at a time of building and repairing things. Why rip the bandage off before it's healed?
I think young black kids should be forced to watch films like Birth of A Nation, The Nigger, and Gone With the Wind. There should be a voice-over of Dr. Dre repeating over and over, here's what they think about you. No need to sugar coat the past.
I saw an old movie recently call Grand Illusion. It's a french movie about officers in a german prisoner of war camp during WWI. Living in the same quarters as the main characters is a Black officer of the French Army. He wasn't significant to the plot and there wasn't a big deal made over his presence. It was simply matter of fact. That really struck me as a big difference between domestic and foreign cinema. The same dynamic exists to this day, but to a lesser extent.
I guess I should have clarified my post to saying that there is no need to open it up for public viewing to white people so that we can spread more racism. I can understand why minorities may want to see it so they can understand what was done, but I just cannot see much good coming from this film being available to the public. For all the good intentions that may be behind showing it, it would be the bad intentions that would protrude from it in the end.
Well, there is little chance of Birth of A Nation going away any time soon. Griffith was the first genius of cinema. Many of the things that distinguish film shooting from theatrical staging were his inventions.
I think, because of Birth of Nation's blatent racism, it still needs to be seen. This film was what started hollywood and it has had much more of an influence on the film industry than one would like to admit. Watch this film, learn about the political context of the film, watch subsequent films and do the same. Suddenlly, (or not so suddenly) issues around the portrayal of black people in hollywood and what types of roles make black actors sucessful (Monster's Ball, Training Day, Bringing Down the House...) might be clearer.
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I saw an old movie recently call Grand Illusion. It's a french movie about officers in a german prisoner of war camp during WWI. Living in the same quarters as the main characters is a Black officer of the French Army. He wasn't significant to the plot and there wasn't a big deal made over his presence. It was simply matter of fact. That really struck me as a big difference between domestic and foreign cinema. The same dynamic exists to this day, but to a lesser extent.
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There really isn't a lot of internet information to be had about this movie. A college film dept. would probably have much more.
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Many things are present in the film like
-Mammy stereotype
-Tragic mulatto stereotype
white = good
black = bad
The issue of "passing" and more.
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