Parker attempted to respond again with more empathy for the victim, but the controversy changed the tenor of the conversation around Nation, a film whose performance and reception Parker had been eager to render in stark, moral terms.
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In 1999, Parker and his then-roommate Jean Celestin were accused of sexually assaulting an unnamed woman while they were both students and athletes at Penn State. But new attention to the encounter and subsequent trial have turned the discussion around Sundance sensation The Birth of a Nation from issues of racial oppression to those of sexual assault. Last week, Parker found out his accuser committed suicide in 2012 and took to his Facebook to express how he was “filled with profound sorrow” and “devastated” upon hearing of her passing.
The American Film Institute has canceled a previously planned screening for writer-director Nate Parker’s upcoming Nat Turner slave epic Birth of a Nation as controversy involving a almost two-decade-old rape case continues to swirl around Parker and the film’s co-writer.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Belafonte admitted he didn’t know all the details of the case which left Parker not guilty of raping a fellow Penn State classmate.
“It’s interesting because it’s coming out the same time the film’s coming out”.
The film shares a title with the 1915 D.W. Griffith epic drama, but is a very different story and is told from an African-American perspective.
The decision comes as the director’s 1999 rape charge and allegations surrounding the scandal have emerged, putting the studio behind the film and festivals scheduled to show the film under pressure as the old charges surface.
Scheutte is not alone in struggling with how to talk about Nate Parker, and his reportedly incredible film, which seemed to be on track for Oscar season after getting bought for $17.5 million.
Belafonte continued: “How do I put it in a perspective that helps me with greater clarity understand why this is the effect of something he’s done by getting this high-profile, ’cause this film is touching a lot of consciousness”.
“And is this going to be the price that young black women and men pay for making films of substance?” he continued. What are we doing here?
Backed by Fox Searchlight, Mr. Parker has just embarked on an extensive campaign to promote the film, and media scrutiny is heightened. “And where is the voice that defends him if he in fact is worthy of defending?”
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“That film did more to articulate and focus post-Civil War racism in America than any other document or artifact of popular culture ever did”, Hagopian said. Nate was also supposed to present the film at several colleges in Toronto, but that’s no longer happening either.
