In 1999, Parker and co-writer Jean McGianni Celestin were accused of rape by a female classmate. As the movie’s auteur and star moves through the industry fallout of those revelations-which inclue the fact that his accuser committed suicide in 2012-both Harry Belafonte and a group of Pennsylvania State University alumni spoke out in support of Parker.
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When asked about Parker’s possible guilt, she says, “that’s one issue, that’s his personal issue”.
“I know just by the conversation that has gone on at Sundance that it’s clearly a movie that filmgoers should go and see”, Boone Isaacs told TMZ, while also admitting that she’s yet to see it. And then theres the issue of the movie.
“I believe it is essential that we discuss these issues together – messenger and message, gender, race and more – before we see the film”, he wrote in a message to students. “People need to see this movie”, she added.
Boone Isaacs declined to comment on the allegations against Parker, of which he was acquitted in a 2001 trial. On Tuesday (Aug. 23) the American Film Institute canceled a screening and a Q&A of the film after deciding to host a discussion based on the topics raised in Parker’s trial.
Is she anxious that it could be impacted in a negative way? “Now you’re making a guess about the possibility”.
“‘The Birth of a Nation” is being billed as an important movie – something we must see, a story that demands to be heard.
It tells the story of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831.
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The Hollywood Reporter surveyed Academy members and found that few had previously known of Parker before the details of his rape trial resurfaced and are now first learning about him through the resulting media coverage. “Just as I can not compartmentalize the various markers of my identity, I can not value a movie, no matter how good or “important’ it might be, over the dignity of a woman whose story should be seen as just as important, a woman who is no longer alive to speak for herself, or benefit from any measure of justice”.
