The Birth of a Nation

Lore & Background

The Birth of a Nation chronicles the relationship of two families in the American Civil War and Reconstruction eras—the pro-Union Stonemans and the pro-Confederacy Camerons—and depicts the assassination of Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth. It was originally shown in two parts separated by an intermission, and it was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra. It helped to pioneer closeups and fadeouts, and includes a carefully staged battle sequence with hundreds of extras made to look like thousands. The film came with a 13-page Souvenir Program and was screened inside the White House, where it was watched by President Woodrow Wilson. The film was controversial even before its release and has remained so since. It has been denounced for its racist depiction of African Americans. Its black characters (many played by white actors in blackface) are portrayed as unintelligent and sexually aggressive toward white women, while a mulatto politician serves as one of the main villains. The Ku Klux Klan is portrayed as a heroic force that protects white women and maintains white supremacy. Popular among white audiences nationwide upon its release, the film's success was both a consequence of and a contributor to racial segregation throughout the U.S. African Americans across the U.S. organized and protested, and the NAACP spearheaded an unsuccessful campaign to have it banned. It was denied release in the state of Ohio and the cities of Chicago, Denver, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Minneapolis. Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year.

Reader's Guide

The Birth of a Nation was a massive commercial success across the nation, grossing far more than any previous motion picture, and it profoundly influenced both the film industry and American culture. Adjusted for inflation, the film remains one of the highest-grossing films ever made. It has been acknowledged as an inspiration for the rebirth of the Ku Klux Klan, which took place only a few months after its release. The film's legacy is deeply divided: it is celebrated for its technical innovations—pioneering closeups, fadeouts, and a full orchestral score—while simultaneously condemned for its virulent racism and its role in reviving the Ku Klux Klan. It remains a key text for understanding the intersection of film history, racial politics, and American cultural memory.

Did You Know?

• The Birth of a Nation was the first non-serial American 12-reel film ever made.
• It was the first American-made film to have a musical score for an orchestra.
• The film was screened inside the White House and watched by President Woodrow Wilson.
• Griffith's indignation at efforts to censor or ban the film motivated him to produce Intolerance the following year.

A First-Timer's Ambitious Debut

Nate Parker stepped into both the writer's and director's chairs for this 2016 historical drama, making it his directorial debut. The film dramatizes the 1831 slave rebellion led by Nat Turner in Southampton County, Virginia, and Parker cast himself in the title role. Around him, a substantial ensemble includes Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, and Jackie Earle Haley. Funding the project was no small feat for a first-time filmmaker; Parker personally petitioned potential financiers until he secured an $8.5 million production budget. Principal photography kicked off in May 2015 on locations across the state of Georgia. The result was a sweeping period piece that tackled one of the most violent uprisings in American history, blending intimate family drama with the political and religious dimensions of slavery in the antebellum South.

Sundance Triumph and Box Office

The film entered the 2016 Sundance Film Festival as a competitive entry in the U.S. Dramatic category and left with both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize. The buzz from that run proved commercially significant: Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired worldwide distribution rights in a $17.5 million deal, which at the time represented the largest purchase ever made at the festival. The theatrical release followed on October 7, 2016, and the picture ultimately collected $16 million at the domestic box office. Critics responded warmly, singling out Parker's direction, the ensemble's performances, the film's soundtrack, and its cinematography as particular strengths. For a debut feature from a first-time director who had to personally lobby investors for funding, the combination of festival accolades, a major studio acquisition, and solid critical reception marked a remarkably successful launch.

The Controversy That Followed

As the film gained visibility through its festival run, a separate story from 1999 resurfaced in the press. Parker and co-story writer Jean McGianni Celestin had been accused of a rape that the accuser alleged occurred in that year. The accuser took her own life in 2012, a fact that added a layer of gravity to the renewed coverage. Legally, Parker was ultimately acquitted of the charges, while Celestin's earlier conviction was overturned on appeal and no retrial was pursued. Nevertheless, the intense media scrutiny, combined with Parker's initial public responses to the allegations, cast a long shadow over the film's reception. The controversy became inseparable from the film's public conversation, complicating what had otherwise been a well-received debut and turning the director's personal history into a central thread of the discourse surrounding the picture.

A Deliberate Title and a Story of Resistance

Parker chose the title as a pointed, ironic echo of D. W. Griffith's 1915 silent film, a work that relied heavily on racist propaganda to evoke fear and solidify white supremacy. In a conversation with Filmmaker magazine, Parker explained that the shared title was ironic but entirely intentional, a deliberate act of reclamation. The narrative itself traces Nat Turner from a young boy on a Virginia plantation in 1809, where his father Isaac is killed after stealing food, through his education in the Bible under Elizabeth Turner, his marriage to Cherry, and his work as an itinerant preacher. After the death of his grandmother, Nat organizes a secret rebellion. The uprising sees him and his followers kill plantation owners, march on the town of Jerusalem seeking weapons, and confront slave-catcher Raymond Cobb. Betrayed by a young boy, the rebels are nearly annihilated. Nat surrenders, is hanged, and the film closes on the face of that same boy, now an adult Union soldier.

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