Birth of a Nation, Oscars (so white in 2017?) and challenging corporate America [View all]

[JustAnotherGen]

Start Here:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196450/

I follow Sundance on social media and yesterday evening what popped up on Facebook? A backstage view of the opening of Birth of a Nation 2016.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4196450/


http://deadline.com/2016/01/birth-of-a-nation-premiere-sundance-stunner-nate-parker-1201690343/
‘Birth Of A Nation’ Electrifies Sundance Crowd In World Premiere

Without an honest confrontation, there is no healing.” That’s from Birth Of A Nation director-producer-star Nate Parker today onstage at the Sundance Film Festival. In what I have to say was one of the most emotional experiences I’ve had at a movie theater, Parker world premiered what he called his seven-year “passion project.” His telling of the early 19th century slave revolt led by Nat Turner had audience members crying in their seats and jumping to their feet in a prolonged standing ovation at the film’s conclusion.


Potential buyers for the film streamed out of the lobby mere minutes after the cast had left the stage post-screening. Some worked multiple cell phones (with assistants standing nearby fielding calls of their own) in what appeared to be fevered discussions about the awards-bait film.

Speaking to the packed Eccles Theater crowd with almost the entire cast beside him after the lights came up, Parker said, “I made this movie for one reason only, creating change agents,” adding, “there are still a lot of injustices in our world.”

It was not an easy road for Nate Parker.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/features/birth-a-nation-slave-revolt-857177

A few days after actor Nate Parker finished shooting the R&B romance Beyond the Lights in late 2013, he met with his agents and told them he would not be acting again — not until he could play American revolutionary Nat Turner.

"I was willing to stick to that — and if it was my lot to never act again, so be it," says Parker, who didn't work for nearly two years, instead spending every minute — and nearly every dime — trying to get his passion project made.

The result is The Birth of a Nation, premiering in Sundance's U.S. Dramatic Competition. Parker, 36, wrote, produced, directed and stars in the drama, playing Turner, a slave who led an 1831 rebellion in Southampton County, Va. He has been writing the script for his version of Turner's story for seven years but has been carrying the story around with him for much longer

Further down at the same link:

Parker, who had written and directed a couple of short films, became determined to write for himself, and, through a fellowship with the Sundance Lab, was connected with mentors such as Walk the Line writer-director James Mangold to help him hone the story he wanted Hollywood to hear. But what he heard instead were all the reasons a movie about Nat Turner wouldn't work: Movies with black leads don't play internationally; a period film with big fight scenes would be too expensive; it was too violent; it wouldn't work without a big box-office star leading it; Turner was too controversial — after all, he was responsible for the deaths of dozens of well-off white landowners.

See the thing is, Turner existed. He's as much a fabric of America as Robert E. Lee. He was here. He was not a work of fiction. He was a 'radical'. He was rebellious. He embodied every single characteristic of the 'Founding Fathers' who fought at Bunker Hill, Ticonderoga, Lexington, Concord, etc. etc.

“They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.”
― Patrick Henry

“Give me liberty or give me death." - Patrick Henry


“Our cruel and unrelenting Enemy leaves us no choice but a brave resistance, or the most abject submission; this is all we can expect - We have therefore to resolve to conquer or die: Our own Country's Honor, all call upon us for a vigorous and manly exertion, and if we now shamefully fail, we shall become infamous to the whole world. Let us therefore rely upon the goodness of the Cause, and the aid of the supreme Being, in whose hands Victory is, to animate and encourage us to great and noble Actions - The Eyes of all our Countrymen are now upon us, and we shall have their blessings, and praises, if happily we are the instruments of saving them from the Tyranny meditated against them. Let us therefore animate and encourage each other, and shew the whole world, that a Freeman contending for Liberty on his own ground is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.”
― George Washington



I assume everyone in this group is aware of where he got his title from - in case you aren't aware -
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0004972/


And for those who say - wait - there are other more pressing issues that the Corporate America that Hollywood with its huge exports abroad each year represents . . . I say no time is better than now. These are the days where Emmett Till is confused with Tamir Rice. The time is now.

The rest of the world - much like America - better learn to accept that WE are the real America. We are Americans. Our stories and lives and the lives of our ancestors matter. They helped build this country without the rights and HUMAN dignity that white Americans were provided. If those outside of America can't handle it then so be it. We do not have to subjugate our creativity and will to theirs. They don't SURVIVE here. And Mr. Turner - he might not have ultimately 'survived' here - but his rebellion certainly was an integral part of the birth of our nation as we know it today.

I will be going to see this movie - making it a priority when it releases. Based upon the standing ovation and the cell phones being hammered by buyers yesterday afternoon -

I think it's safe to say that the Oscars won't be so white next year - and the nominations won't be for cowering slaves and victimized maids. You know what? It's about god damned time!

Bravo Sundance and Mr. Redford. Your comments last year when you did your round table with Lucas - and your comments a few days ago make sense. Thanks for a safe space to display 'America' beyond the struggles of white men.