Birth of a Movement is a 2017 American documentary film produced by Northern Light Productions and based on the book Birth of a Movement: How Birth of a Nation Ignited the Battle for Civil Rights by Dick Lehr. The film tells the story of how, in 1915, Boston-based African American newspaper editor and activist William Monroe Trotter waged a battle against D.W. Griffith's technically groundbreaking but notoriously Ku Klux Klan-friendly film The Birth of a Nation based on the book The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr. Birth of a Nation prompted a debate about race relations, media representation, and the power and influence of Hollywood that still continues. The film explores the backdrop to this clash between human rights, freedom of speech, and a changing media landscape. [1]
The documentary features Spike Lee, whose first film The Answer was an artistic response to The Birth of a Nation; Reginald Hudlin who produced Django Unchained in response to Griffith's film; and Paul Miller, aka DJ Spooky, who recut his own version of The Birth of a Nation, accompanied by his own original musical score. [2]
Birth of a Movement first aired on PBS’ Independent Lens on February 6, 2017, and was one of their most popular programs. [3] It was chosen as a finalist for best documentary film at the 2018 NAACP Image Awards. [4]
The Birth of a Nation, originally called The Clansman, is a 1915 American silent epic drama film directed by D. W. Griffith and starring Lillian Gish. The screenplay is adapted from Thomas Dixon Jr.'s 1905 novel and play The Clansman. Griffith co-wrote the screenplay with Frank E. Woods and produced the film with Harry Aitken.
David Wark Griffith was an American film director. Considered one of the most influential figures in the history of the motion picture, he pioneered many aspects of film editing and expanded the art of the narrative film.
Medgar Wiley Evers was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served in World War II, was engaged in efforts to overturn segregation at the University of Mississippi, end the segregation of public facilities, and expand opportunities for African Americans including the enforcement of voting rights.
Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Movement is an American television series and 14-part documentary about the 20th-century civil rights movement in the United States. The documentary originally aired on the PBS network, and it also aired in the United Kingdom on BBC2. Created and executive produced by Henry Hampton at his film production company Blackside, and narrated by Julian Bond, the series uses archival footage, stills, and interviews by participants and opponents of the movement. The title of the series is derived from the title of the folk song "Keep Your Eyes on the Prize", which is used as the opening theme music in each episode.
February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four is a 2003 documentary film by Rebecca Cerese and Steven Channing. Nationally broadcast on Independent Lens on PBS, it tells the story of The Greensboro Four, four young college freshman, Joseph McNeil, David Richmond, Franklin McCain and Ezell Blair, Jr. now Jibreel Khazan, who staged a sit-in at Woolworth's in 1960 to protest segregation practices. Based largely on first hand accounts and rare archival footage, the documentary film February One documents one volatile winter in Greensboro that not only challenged public accommodation customs and laws in North Carolina, but served as one of the blueprints for the nonviolent protests that occurred across the South and the nation during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
Harry Tyson Moore was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in Brevard County, Florida, and president of the state chapter of the NAACP.
Pamela Yates is an American documentary filmmaker and human rights activist. She has directed films about war crimes, racism, and genocide in the United States and Latin America, often with emphasis on the legal responses.
Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He is a recipient of the 2013 National Humanities Medal from President Obama. He has won three Primetime Emmy Awards.
Northern Light Productions is a documentary film and museum media production company based in Boston, MA. Founded in 1982 by independent filmmaker Bestor Cram, the company is one of New England's premiere production organizations, creating a variety of work for museums, visitor centers, educational institutions, and television broadcast worldwide.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, and Ida B. Wells. Over the years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins.
Hinaleimoana Kwai Kong Wong-Kalu, also known as Kumu Hina, is a Native Hawaiian māhū – a traditional third gender person who occupies "a place in the middle" between male and female, as well as a modern transgender woman. She is known for her work as a kumu hula, as a filmmaker, artist, activist and as a community leader in the field of Kanaka Maoli language and cultural preservation. She teaches Kanaka Maoli philosophy and traditions that promotes cross-cultural alliances throughout the Pacific Islands. Kumu Hina is known as a "powerful performer with a clear, strong voice"; she has been hailed as "a cultural icon".
Connie Field is a director of documentary features.
Negroes with Guns: Rob Williams and Black Power is a 2004 feature film by directors Sandra Dickson and Churchill Roberts. It was a National PBS Broadcast, on Independent Lens, in February 2006. The film won the 2006 Erik Barnouw Award for Outstanding Historical Documentary, of the Organization of American Historians, the Audience Award of the Detroit Docs Film Festival, in 2005, and the Critic's Award for Outstanding Feature Documentary of the New York UrbanWorld Film Festival, in 2005.
Dick Lehr is an American author, journalist and a professor of journalism at Boston University. He is known for co-authoring The New York Times bestseller and Edgar Award winner Black Mass: Whitey Bulger, the FBI and a Devil’s Deal, and its sequel, Whitey: The Life of America’s Most Notorious Mob Boss with fellow journalist Gerard O'Neill.
Sabrina Schmidt Gordon is an American documentary filmmaker. She is known for producing and editing films on cultural and social issues. In 2018, she was invited to become a member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).
African American cinema is loosely classified as films made by, for, or about Black Americans. Historically, African American films have been made with African-American casts and marketed to African-American audiences. The production team and director were sometimes also African American. More recently, Black films featuring multicultural casts aimed at multicultural audiences have also included American Blackness as an essential aspect of the storyline.
Melissa Haizlip is an American film producer, director and writer most notable for her 2018 award winning film, Mr. SOUL!. Haizlip won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Writing in a Documentary for Mr. SOUL!.
Alex Stapleton is an American director, showrunner, and executive producer of documentary feature films and unscripted television.