Here's your first look at 'Birth of A Nation,' the movie everyone will be talking about this October
The trailer for The Birth of a Nation—which depicts the events of Nat Turner’s 1831 slave rebellion—is here.
The clip opens with a foreboding pan over a plantation cotton field as Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Strange Fruit” plays in the background. We see Turner, played by director Nate Parker (Beyond the Lights), grapple with his decision to mount an insurgency against the people, and institution, that would rather see him enslaved. The tension is palpable, fiery even, despite the film’s eerily muted, blue-green color palette. Check it out below.
It was critical that I use this title. I wanted to put a spotlight on this film—what it did to America, what it did to our film industry, what it did to people of color with respect for domestic terrorism. There’s blood on that title, so I wanted to repurpose it. From now on, The Birth of a Nation is attached to Nat Turner, one of the bravest revolutionaries this country has ever seen.
Parker’s film doesn’t hit theaters until later this year, but it has already garnered plenty of buzz. It picked up both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Prize in the dramatic picture category at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, Variety reports. Plus, it sold to Fox Searchlight Pictures for a record $17.5 million.
The Birth of a Nation will be released nationwide on Oct. 7.
Bad at filling out bios seeks same.