Union: 'Birth of a Nation' can spur conversation on race

Sep 13, 2016, 04:56
Union: 'Birth of a Nation' can spur conversation on race

In future forums, I'll address it more. So many people are away from their families and working on the film... "I do think it's important to recognize that no one person does anything important on their own".

"It's a powerful film and it tells a hugely important story and the kind of story we don't see often", the festival's artistic director Cameron Bailey said in an interview.

"Sometimes a grip or gaffer had the best idea and that's what we went with", he said.

"I do want to make sure we're honouring this film and these people in front of you", Parker continued.

"So you can imagine learning about this person, in the absence of heroes, meant a lot to me".

Union talked about the response to her essay at a Toronto Film Festival Q&A panel for the film, reports the Cut.

"This movie is the song we are singing in our heat". But she quickly caught herself: "Slavery happened in Canada, so hello, Canada", she added. Everyone who has sweat and bled and cried for this film should be rewarded. I think that we've all been held back and scarred. During an hourlong news conference at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, the movie's performers spoke ardently of the tale's importance beyond Parker's personal reproach.

Parker was acquitted in the case. Union says she was raped at gunpoint 24 years ago and took the role because she "related to the experience". "There is the art and there is the artist, and they are two different things", declared Ellis.

"Healing comes with honest conversation about our past".

Union told reporters graphic details about her past sexual assault, and about the daily thanks she receives for bringing the issue into the open.

"This isn't the Nate Parker story, this is the Nat Turner story", Miller said.

The question now is will Academy voters and cinema audiences everywhere similarly look past the creator's personal history only recently brought to light to the content of an indie film looking to illuminate a USA antebellum South history long kept in the dark. An audience member asked Parker what message he wanted Birth Of A Nation to convey to audience members, "in the context of the current presidential election and the Black Lives Matter movement".

Critical acclaim at Sundance for "The Birth of a Nation" has been eclipsed in recent weeks by revelations that the film's star/writer/director/producer was involved in a college rape case in 1999. "When we're talking about injustice we all have jobs to do", referring to the journalists in the room as well as the filmmakers on stage, adding that he thought both jobs would "progress us forward as a nation, progress us forward as a planet and put forth an effort that can raise all ships".

During the panel Parker and the cast of "The Birth of a Nation" argued for focusing on their film and not on the years-old rape allegation against Parker that has enveloped the film in a scandal from his past.

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