The film, the first so-called spectacular, is considered … The Stoneman family finds its friendship with the Camerons affected by the Civil War, both fighting in opposite armies. Billy Bitzer was the first cinematographer to employ nighttime photography, a feat he achieved by firing magnesium flares into the night for the split-screen sequence of the sacking of Atlanta. The film represents the culmination of visual strategies to communicate narrative that the film industry had been working on for the first twenty years of its existence. “The Birth of a Nation” had premiered in Los Angeles on Feb. 8, and on Feb. 18 it became the first feature film to be screened at the White House. Aside from the obvious reasons for its importance (cinematography, editing, better developed nuances in directing and acting for its time) the film was the progenitor of future Road Show releases such as Gone With The Wind, Ben-Hur and Doctor Zhivago. The Birth of a Nation represents the culmination of visual strategies to communicate narrative that the film industry had been working on for the first twenty years of its existence. Birth of a Nation is Nate Parker's directorial debut and I was initially sceptical about watching this film after the harsh criticism it received and the … The Birth of a Nation (2016) Synopsis Set against the antebellum South, THE BIRTH OF A NATION follows Nat Turner (Nate Parker), a literate slave and preacher, whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner (Armie Hammer), accepts an offer to use Nat's preaching to subdue unruly slaves. Birth of a Nation is unquestionably high on the list of movies that made a mark in the 2Oth century. The development of the war in their lives plays through to Lincoln's assassination and the birth of the Ku Klux Klan. The Birth of a Nation was a sensation after its release in 1915. Directed by D.W. Griffith. Until "Gone With the Wind" — another fantasy — "The Birth of a Nation" was the top Hollywood moneymaker. It was the longest and most-profitable film then produced and the most artistically advanced film of its day. To understand how it does so is to learn a great deal about film, and even something about evil. The Birth of a Nation Critics Consensus. The Birth of a Nation was directed by D. W. Griffith. The pamphlet’s author was the film director D.W. Griffith, and the subtext for his First Amendment flag-waving was the fierce campaign against his 1915 motion picture The Birth of a Nation… With Lillian Gish, Mae Marsh, Henry B. Walthall, Miriam Cooper. Countless directors after Griffith owe their technical knowledge of filmmaking to the cohesiveness of The Birth of … D. W. Griffith didn't invent every technique used in The Birth of a Nation. The Birth of a Nation features a number of developing personal relationships—Ben and Elsie, Phil and Margaret, Stoneman and Lydia—as well as relationships that are pursued but never consummated in any way—Lynch and Elsie, Gus and Flora. Describing the Reconstruction era, the film adapts quotations from a history book written by Woodrow Wilson, an adherent of the Dunning School.