African American
Related: About this forumEXCLUSIVE: ‘Birth of a Nation,’ a slave-uprising film, becomes a hit amid Oscar furor
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/birth-nation-hit-oscar-furor-article-1.2515238An independent drama about the doomed 1831 rebellion by Virginia slave Nat Turner arrived at just the right time in cinematic history and the films writer/director/star is ready for an uprising of a less violent kind.
Birth of a Nation, Nate Parkers statement on the black experience in America, scored loud cheers and a bidding war among distributors at its premiere last week in Park City, Utah.
Fox Searchlight moved quickly to pay a Sundance record $17.5 million to buy the film, which went on to capture the two highest honors for drama at the Sundance Film Festival Saturday the Audience Award and the Grand Jury prize.
Thank you Lord, thank you Sundance, Parker said onstage at the Basin Recreation Field House in Park City. Ive seen first-hand that people are open to the idea of change, and the fact that this is happening means everything to me.
more at link
msongs
(67,443 posts)Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)and for many others. And your statement is kind of ironic given that Nat Turner was considered a prophet and preacher, saying the Lord, of the same book you cite, commanded him to act. The same book that says "Break every yoke and let the oppressed go free" Isaiah 58:6
"Believing in signs and hearing divine voices, Turner had a vision in 1825 of a bloody conflict between black and white spirits. Three years later, he had what he believed to be another message from God. In his later confession, Turner explained 'the Spirit instantly appeared to me and said the Serpent was loosened, and Christ had laid down the yoke he had borne for the sins of men, and that I should take it on and fight against the Serpent.' Turner would receive another sign to tell him when to fight, but this latest message meant 'I should arise and prepare myself and slay my enemies with their own weapons,' and Biblical message too http://www.biography.com/people/nat-turner-9512211#slave-rebellion-leader
I'm not a practicing Christian at all, having attended parochial schools till college, and seriously steer clear of many Christians, and I definitely agree with you that the Bible does not condemn slavery but guides how to regulate it as an economic and social necessity. It's a condition of humanity, I mean not even early Budhism condemned slavery or tried to abolish the caste system.
Just saying Parker thanking the Lord does not necessarily mean he believes Everything written in the book or how it's been used. Dogma and religious stuff may be irrelevant when it comes to who one considers their personal guide worthy of praise and salvation. It's more about spirituality, not religion.
JustAnotherGen
(31,906 posts)This was a spiritual thing for Turner!
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)Last edited Sun Jan 31, 2016, 09:48 PM - Edit history (1)
heaven05
(18,124 posts)Religion is a TOOL to control those millions/billions that follow. Paraphrasing here...make your own path and leave a trail, don't follow the beaten path...Ralph Waldo Emerson.....
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)King James was really into owning slaves.
He even sent the Irish into slavery.
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)didn't start with King James or his version of the Bible, right?
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)snort
(2,334 posts)+ $17.5 million.
Joe Chi Minh
(15,229 posts)fact, Moses said the practice of slavery among their own people was a practice that was detestable to God.
However, absolutely central to the Gospel of the New Testament is the precept that we are all brothers and sisters of the same family, grafted as branches into the true vine, by our baptism and good faith. Indeed, barring the Corban pretext for parental dereliction, our concern for others should transcend the natural ties of affection for our family.
And since it is the Christian's bounden duty to evangelize, any slave would wish for conversion whether in good faith or bad, knowing that it ought to mean their release from slavery and equal citizenship with other Christians - not only in heaven but here on earth. And Christ was not the kind of man who would blame a convert for converting only under such duress, if the conversion had been in bad faith, simply to win freedom from slavery.
eppur_se_muova
(36,295 posts)Maybe the choice was meant to reclaim a particular cultural/intellectual space, but will it more likely cause confusion ?
(Titles, BTW, can not be copyrighted.)
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)It could be a really culturally astute play.
JustAnotherGen
(31,906 posts)And it's a big old spit in the eye to DW Griffiths.
I can't believe that poster tried to play "I'm so innocent is this cultural appropriation?"
You mean that movie FILLED to the gills with black people?
That person has never seen the original or they wouldn't have made that statement/jump.
It is filled to the gills with raping, water melon, fried chicken eating child like savages (mostly in black face but I digress)
gollygee
(22,336 posts)I thought, "who on earth would remake that??"
Then I heard it's a totally different movie from a very very different perspective. It might be a really clever use of that name - it creates a very intentional contrast.
JustAnotherGen
(31,906 posts)It was very deliberate.
Empowerer
(3,900 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,906 posts)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
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:
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.
gollygee
(22,336 posts)It sounds like it's an amazing movie
Empowerer
(3,900 posts)But I'm tired of films about slavery . . .
At least I'm tired of films about slavery being among the few black films that get any play. We have such a wide range of experiences throughout our history and in the current times. I wish we had more diversity in the stories being told.
That is all...
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)a Breakfast Club interview. He asked DJ Envy, Angela Yee and Charlamagne Tha God, why are there so many "Black movies" with us being slaves and so few with us being Kings and Queens? ... We were slaves for a couple centuries; we were Kings and Queens for a millennia.
greiner3
(5,214 posts)Were headed by 'Nubians' from up Nile way.
I'm no Biblical scholar but I've heard that Mary's ancestors came from what is modern day Ethiopia, not known for blonde hair/blue eyes.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)descended from one of Alexander the Great's generals: Macedonian, of course; not Greek... but certainly not Nubian.
Recursion
(56,582 posts)Though honestly at this point I'd imagine they'd cast Russell Crowe or something
Kind of Blue
(8,709 posts)JustAnotherGen
(31,906 posts)He founded the Republican Party in South Carolina.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)If it was not great it would not even exist. And I love that he took that title. I love it so very much.
cindyperry
(151 posts)Advertising looks phenomenal