The Birth of a Nation is a 2016 historical drama film written and directed by Nate Parker in his directorial debut. It is based on the story of Nat Turner, the enslaved man who led a slave rebellion in Southampton County, Virginia, in 1831. The film stars Parker as Turner, with Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr., Colman Domingo, Aunjanue Ellis, Dwight Henry, Aja Naomi King, Esther Scott, Roger Guenveur Smith, Gabrielle Union, Penelope Ann Miller, and Jackie Earle Haley in supporting roles. The film's title is a reference to the 1915 D. W. Griffith film The Birth of a Nation.
The Birth of a Nation had an $8.5 million budget, and filming began in May 2015 in Georgia. The film premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, where Fox Searchlight Pictures bought worldwide rights in a $17.5 million deal. The film won the Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize in the U.S. Dramatic Competition. The film was theatrically released in the United States on October 7, 2016, and grossed $16 million, receiving positive reviews from critics, with praise for its directing, acting, soundtrack, and cinematography.
During the film's festival run, there was significant press coverage of a 1999 alleged rape that Parker and co-story writer Jean McGianni Celestin were accused of having committed, and the fact that the accuser committed suicide in 2012. While Parker was acquitted and Celestin was not retried after his conviction was overturned on appeal, the controversy surrounding the alleged rape and Parker's initial responses to the controversy cast a shadow over the film.
Plot In 1809, on a plantation in Southampton County, Virginia, Nat Turner is a young slave boy. Due to limited food for their children, Nat's father, Isaac, ventures out one night to steal something for his son to eat. However, he is apprehended by a posse led by slave-catcher Raymond Cobb. When Cobb attempts to execute Isaac, he turns the tables, killing one member of the posse, and escapes. Upon returning home, Isaac informs his family of the incident and the need for his immediate departure. Before leaving, he shares a final conversation with Nat, emphasizing that he is "a child of God" with a purpose. When Cobb arrives and interrogates Isaac's family about his whereabouts, they remain silent. Benjamin Turner, the owner of the farm, intervenes and drives Cobb away before he turns violent.
Elizabeth Turner, Benjamin's wife, discovers Nat's basic reading skills and begins teaching him, primarily using the Bible. She even arranges for Nat to read Scripture during church gatherings. However, shortly before Benjamin's presumed death from tuberculosis, he instructs his wife to cease Nat's education and assign him to work as a farmhand. As an adult, Nat continues to toil in the cotton fields while also preaching and reading Scripture for his fellow slaves. Samuel Turner, Benjamin's son, inherits ownership of the plantation.
During a slave auction, Nat becomes enamored of Cherry, a female slave up for sale. He persuades Samuel to purchase her as a wedding gift for Samuel's sister, Catherine Turner. Nat and Cherry fall in love, marry, and have a daughter. Due to the deteriorating economic conditions in the South and the poor crop prices, many slave owners struggle to feed their slaves and fear potential revolts. Reverend Walthall proposes an arrangement to Samuel: if Samuel travels with Nat to various plantations, where Nat can preach to the slaves, they will receive substantial compensation from other plantation owners. The intention is to pacify the slaves and convince them that the Bible justifies their endurance of their circumstances. Samuel, in need of money, reluctantly agrees.
During their visits to different plantations, Nat and Samuel witness emaciated and desperate slaves, as well as instances of appalling mistreatment by their owners. After baptizing a white convict (released from prison but banned from white churches due to his pedophilia), Nat is severely beaten, and Samuel terminates Nat's itinerant preaching. Following the death of his grandmother, Nat resolves to rebel against the slaveholders. He holds a clandestine meeting with a select group of trusted fellow slaves, including a fellow slave whose wife was raped by one of Samuel's guests, a boy from another plantation, and others, and prepares them for the uprising. Nat also confides in Cherry, who is still recovering from a severe beating, seeking her approval for the planned revolt.
Under cover of darkness, Nat and a fellow slave enter their owners' house and kill Samuel and the manager (rescuing a young black slave girl from his bed). They then rally the other slaves on the plantation, and most of them join their cause. Throughout the night, they seize control of several other plantations, killing the slave owners. During one takeover, they realize that the boy has gone missing. Shortly afterward, they are ambushed by a group of white men, alerted by the boy, and are forced to retreat. The next morning, they march into the town of Jerusalem to procure weapons. They encounter another group of white men, led by Cobb once again, but manage to overcome them, with Nat personally killing Cobb. However, their hopes are shattered upon discovering an empty arsenal. They are swiftly attacked by soldiers, resulting in the death of every slave except Nat, who escapes.
In a secret meeting with Cherry, Nat learns of the retaliatory murder of innocent slaves and the potential for more bloodshed as long as he remains on the run. Consequently, Nat decides to surrender himself and is condemned to death. During his hanging, Nat notices the slave boy who betrayed their group in the crowd, but he harbors no ill will towards him. The film concludes with a fade from the boy's tearful face to the face of an adult soldier, presumably the same boy now grown up and fighting for the Union Army during the American Civil War.
Cast
Nate Parker as Nat Turner Tony Espinosa as Young Nat Turner Armie Hammer as Samuel Turner Mark Boone Junior as Rev. Walthall Colman Domingo as Hark Turner Aunjanue Ellis as Nancy Turner Dwight Henry as Isaac Turner Aja Naomi King as Cherry Turner Esther Scott as Bridget Turner Roger Guenveur Smith as Isaiah Gabrielle Union as Esther Penelope Ann Miller as Elizabeth Turner Jackie Earle Haley as Raymond Cobb Jayson Warner Smith as Hank Fowler Jason Stuart as Joseph Randall Steve Coulter as General Childs Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Simon
Title The 2016 film uses the same title as "D. W. Griffith's 1915 KKK propaganda film in a very purposeful way", said The Hollywood Reporter. Parker has said his film had the same title "ironically, but very much by design". He told the magazine Filmmaker:
Griffith's film relied heavily on racist propaganda to evoke fear and desperation as a tool to solidify white supremacy as the lifeblood of American sustenance. Not only did this film motivate the massive resurgence of the terror group the Ku Klux Klan and the carnage exacted against people of African descent, it served as the foundation of the film industry we know today. I've reclaimed this title and re-purposed it as a tool to challenge racism and white supremacy in America, to inspire a riotous disposition toward any and all injustice in this country (and abroad) and to promote the kind of honest confrontation that will galvanize our society toward healing and sustained systemic change.
Production
The Birth of a Nation was written, produced, and directed by Nate Parker, who also stars as Nat Turner. Parker wrote the screenplay, which was based on a story he co-wrote with Jean McGianni Celestin. Parker learned about Turner from an African-American studies course at the University of Oklahoma. He began writing the screenplay for a Nat Turner film in 2009 and had a fellowship at a lab under the Sundance Institute. While he got writing feedback from filmmakers like James Mangold, he was told that a Nat Turner film could not be produced. The Hollywood Reporter said: 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.
After Parker finished his acting role in Beyond the Lights in late 2013, he told his agents he would not continue acting until he had played Nat Turner in a film. He invested $100,000 of his money to hire a production designer and to pay for location scouting in Savannah, Georgia. He met with multiple financiers, and the first to invest in the film were retired basketball player Michael Finley (who had previously invested in the 2013 film The Butler) and active basketball player Tony Parker (no relation). Parker eventually brought together eleven groups of investors to finance 60% of the production budget, and producer Aaron L. Gilbert of BRON Studios joined to cover the remaining financing. It was made in association with TSG Entertainment.
In November 2014, development was underway, and Armie Hammer joined the cast. By April 2015, Aja Naomi King and Gabrielle Union joined the cast. In subsequent months, Penelope Ann Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, and Mark Boone Junior also joined. Filming took place in Georgia (including at Myrtle Grove Plantation) in May 2015 and lasted 27 days. Parker used the a cappella choir from Wiley College on the soundtrack. Parker had previously been part of a cast that portrayed historical figures from Wiley, in The Great Debaters (2007).
Music
Release The Birth of a Nation premiered in competition at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival on , 2016. Before it screened, the audience gave a standing ovation to the introduction of Nate Parker. Afterwards, Variety said it "received the most enthusiastic standing ovation at this year's Sundance Film Festival so far".