Parker is front-and-centre in the film, as director, co-writer and lead star, in the role of Nat Turner, an American-born slave turned preacher who led an 1831 slave rebellion in Virginia that is seen as an important step toward the eventual abolition of slavery in the U.S.
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“I would just say I’ve addressed it, and I’m sure in future forums I will address it more”, Parker said.
“The reality is no one person makes a film”, said Parker. “I definitely don’t want to hijack this with my personal life”.
During the press conference Parker, who along with being the film’s writer and director also plays Turner in the movie, and his fellow cast mates spoke about the hopes that the movie will be a bridge to starting a conversation about issues of racism and sexual abuse (the character played by Gabrielle Union in the movie is raped, she has since spoken out about being raped as a teen). Prior to the TIFF premiere, the press was alerted that neither Parker nor his cast would take any questions on the red carpet, limiting their availability to “photos only”.
“This a forum for the film”. This is a forum for the film, this is a forum for the other people who are sitting on this stage. “Respectfully, I want to thank again the Toronto International Film Festival for allowing us to be here”. The presser, and the progress of The Birth of a Nation, is being closely watched in Toronto by the film’s producers – Bron Studios, Phantom Four, Mandalay Pictures and Tiny Giant Productions.
Fox Searchlight then won a record-setting bidding war to acquire the film’s worldwide distribution rights.
Yet in recent weeks, the film’s merits have been overshadowed by the spectre of Mr Parker’s past: At students at Penn State University in 1999, he and his co-screenwriter Jean Celestin were tried for rape. The unnamed victim claimed that Parker and Celestin sexually assaulted her when she was intoxicated and unconscious. The incident spawned a successful civil lawsuit by the woman against the college. The accuser killed herself in 2012. Her brother, identified only as Johnny, told The Hollywood Reporter that the rape case “was obviously that point” she changed.
The festival declined to host a press event for The Birth of a Nation; Sunday’s event was organized by Fox Searchlight. Many think its awards chances are gone. “As important and ground-breaking as this film is, I can not take these allegations lightly”, she wrote in early September.
“The Birth of a Nation” is slated to arrive in theatres on October 7. “These are not simple questions at all”.
Film lovers and industry insiders have been waiting with bated breath to see how The Birth of a Nation would go over at the Toronto Film Festival.
The cast on Sunday voiced their support for the film, and its relevance to today’s racial discord.
“This has been such a labour of love for us and we are just desperately proud to present it to you”, he added. “There’s blood on the streets, and it’s on everyone’s hands because we are not facing our truth”.
The topic was also absent from a cast and crew Q&A after the screening, which included Parker’s co-star Gabrielle Union, who wrote recently of her “stomach-churning confusion” upon learning about the 1999 case.
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Union penned an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times earlier this month saying she could not take the Parker rape allegations lightly. “I never wanted to feel like any one person was ever above or more important than anyone”.
