The Birth of a Nation Bookmarks
This month my youngest brother and I went to watch Birth of a Nation, a film by Nate Parker about the story of Nat Turner. I was familiar with Nat Turner's name but not so much his story, just references from music and a few clips of information I picked up from documentaries about America and slavery. I was first introduced to Nate Parker's work when I went to see The Great Debaters movie. Afterwards I wondered what that experience acting alongside Denzel Washington would mean to Parker's future as an actor. I thought about this because of what I learned from actors like Ethan Hawke of Training Day and Derek Luke of Antwone Fisher who described the experience acting with Washington as an opportunity of a lifetime. I came up a big fan of Washington after one of my earliest theater experiences as a kid seeing Malcolm X with my little brother's godfather and his son. In a lot of ways that experience would shape how I felt later about the social responsibility of cinema and recognizing its power to inspire and teach us something that would mean something to us later on. Films like that also linked me to literature as a kid and books like the Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. At 12 years old I started reading this book which would take a few years for me to comprehend and finish reading. It was because of the story I was introduced to at the movies that I kept at it. It pushed me into a life of inquiry that would continue well beyond middle and high school and on into college and my years as an adult.
The Great Debaters, like Spike Lee's Malcolm X was a powerful theater experience... emotionally charged and all that. It hit deep for a number of reasons, especially since by 2007, I was thinking about education differently. I was a year away from graduating with my master's degree and started to experience life as an educator. There was something about that connection between Parker's character in the film and Washington's character...student to teacher. It took me back to films like Malcolm X ...it made me think about timelines and what story cinema would tell next. Since childhood I've always valued stories. Reading Walter Dean Myers, I could see everything Myers wrote as if I was watching a movie. So to see Birth of a Nation manifest itself through Parker's efforts after being introduced to his work on The Great Debaters almost 10 years ago...I sat there and thought about this as the closing credits of Birth of a Nation started to roll.
To date, I'm still thinking about Birth of a Nation and what I will do next to learn more about Nat Turner's story. I also think about America's first "blockbuster" a Hollywood silent film, a horror one at that...directed by D.W. Griffith's, of the same name The Birth of a Nation released a little over a century prior to Parker's directorial debut. I thought about what I learned regarding President Wilson's screening of this racist propoganda at the White House in 1915. I think about the implications of this film and domestic terrorism in the United States, the KKK and all the Black Americans that lost their lives...lives Billie Holiday would sing ode to in ((Strange Fruit)) a couple of decades later. Lives connected to the lives we're losing today that protests demand justice for in 2016.
With Parker's film, I think about that creative connection to music and the compilation inspired by Nat Turner's Birth of a Nation. I think about its relationship with literature. Recently, at Nate Parker's social media Twitter @NateParker, I found out about an educational companion text to the film titled The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement.
This past week I received a brick of Birth of a Nation bookmarks (see picture above). The previous week I received film posters that I disseminated to local theaters and friends. It was through a Twitter post by Amy Bowllan that I found out about these items and which I'm most grateful to have received. Trust, they're in good hands and will be in others soon.
We're at the dawn of a twisted, cryptic, weird election in this country. So as we go through this power trip, I look forward to what's next from all of the actors and actresses that came together in Birth of a Nation. I look forward to the dialogue and the first book I decide to read about Nat Turner that my Birth of a Nation bookmark will call home for a while.
Til' the Birth of a Nation blu-ray... Peace.
#Lee
To date, I'm still thinking about Birth of a Nation and what I will do next to learn more about Nat Turner's story. I also think about America's first "blockbuster" a Hollywood silent film, a horror one at that...directed by D.W. Griffith's, of the same name The Birth of a Nation released a little over a century prior to Parker's directorial debut. I thought about what I learned regarding President Wilson's screening of this racist propoganda at the White House in 1915. I think about the implications of this film and domestic terrorism in the United States, the KKK and all the Black Americans that lost their lives...lives Billie Holiday would sing ode to in ((Strange Fruit)) a couple of decades later. Lives connected to the lives we're losing today that protests demand justice for in 2016.
With Parker's film, I think about that creative connection to music and the compilation inspired by Nat Turner's Birth of a Nation. I think about its relationship with literature. Recently, at Nate Parker's social media Twitter @NateParker, I found out about an educational companion text to the film titled The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement.
This past week I received a brick of Birth of a Nation bookmarks (see picture above). The previous week I received film posters that I disseminated to local theaters and friends. It was through a Twitter post by Amy Bowllan that I found out about these items and which I'm most grateful to have received. Trust, they're in good hands and will be in others soon.
We're at the dawn of a twisted, cryptic, weird election in this country. So as we go through this power trip, I look forward to what's next from all of the actors and actresses that came together in Birth of a Nation. I look forward to the dialogue and the first book I decide to read about Nat Turner that my Birth of a Nation bookmark will call home for a while.
Til' the Birth of a Nation blu-ray... Peace.
#Lee
