Special Film Review: THE BIRTH OF A NATION (USA 2016)

Directed by Nate Parker

Starring: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Penelope Ann Miller

Review by Gilbert Seah

Writer/director Nate Parker debut drama uses the same title of one of the most instrumental films in early cinema history. D.W. Griffith’s THE BIRTH OF A NATION was considered one of the best films in early cinema and one that would influence filmmakers everywhere and at any time. But Griffith’s film was racist against the African American and boosted white supremacy and the KKK Ku-Klax clan. Parker uses the same film title hoping it to be a corrective reclamation of cinematic history. This is all very ambitious, especially for a young filmmaker, and even more so for one that has been accused, though acquitted of the rape of a fellow student.

Whether one can argue that an artist should be separated from his work and real life, it is difficult to care for the…