Screen Arts 12/3

Birth of a Nation film research

Based on a book called The Clansman by Thomas Dixon Jr.
The film portrays the KKK as the townsfolks heroes, saving them from the rioting blacks.
The KKK used this film as a recruiting tool to resurrect the KKK in 1915, even though that wasnt the film makers intentions.
African American men are protrayed as animals, lusting after white american woman, causing chaos, not worthy of voting and completely evil. Retrieved: https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Birth-of-a-Nation

Oscar Micheaux created Within our Gates(1919) as a contrst to Birth of a nation. To try and show the other side of black people, the enlighten the racist white ppl of the times. He was trying to show that if white people looked pasttheir bigotry, they would see that blacks are worthy of respect and the same rights as whites. Retrieved: https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/within-our-gates-1920/

D.W Griffiths made a followup film called Intolerance in 1916, which covered 4 different stories, in response partially to the criticism he got for Birth of a nation.