further rant, because I’m not done yet, and more people should know about this
despite its massive success, the extremely racist and very historically inaccurate Birth of a Nation was not without controversy at the time of its release.
a lot of activist groups tried to prevent its screening in their areas, and there was debate about whether or not showing it in cities would prove to be incendiary and start race riots. Black Americans did not like the film and were open about how they did not like it.
one of the responses to it was a full-length motion picture made some years later called Within Our Gates, about the racism and bigotry that still existed in the US. it was written and directed by Oscar Micheaux (Wikipedia), a black author/auteur who ran his own film studio and independently produced over forty pictures. his films had all-black casts and lower budgets, but proved to be popular. some of them are lost, but some aren’t, and Gates is one that’s been preserved at its full runtime. Here it is on YouTube; the cast is in the description.
talking about the influence of Nation on US cinema and by extension world cinema while removing it from its historical context makes it seem like everybody back then was just okay with the blatant racism and horrific plot, but they weren’t. and black Americans who were contemporaries of the film and of Griffith weren’t powerless victims needing to be saved, either. they had concerns and voices of their own, and they created art to express their feelings and strike back against the dominant narrative.
if your film history/film appreciation classes aren’t talking about this, I’m sorry, but they’re failing you.
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