“We’re just so desperately proud to bring this film to you”, said Parker, who portrays Nat Turner, the American slave who led a rebellion in 1831.
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And would Parker, who has mostly stayed silent on the issue except for a handful of vague interviews and social-media posts – “I look back on that time as a teenager and can say without hesitation that I should have used more wisdom”, he wrote on Facebook – choose to further dissect his past?
“There’s no one person that makes a film”, Parker said.
TORONTO “The Birth of a Nation” director Nate Parker and his cast are playing challenging parts this weekend as they try to keep the spotlight trained on their acclaimed slavery drama while acknowledging concern about a rape case involving Parker.
The film, out in US theaters on October 7, was screened in Toronto on Friday night at a red carpet premiere, where no video cameras were allowed and security was tight. But his only reaction to the rape controversy was to say: “I’ve addressed it”, and “I’ll address it more”. “This film has been a labour of love for us and we are desperately proud to present it to you”, Parker told the crowd. During an hourlong news conference at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, the movie’s performers spoke ardently of the tale’s importance beyond Parker’s personal reproach.
Friday’s premiere is Parker’s first public event since it emerged last month that the accuser in his 1999 rape trial and acquittal committed suicide in 2012. “It’s not mine. It doesn’t belong to me”.
“This movie is so much bigger than me, than Nate, but it includes all of us in moving this conversation forward”, Union explained to the Associated Press (AP) on Saturday (10Sep16) at a junket for the film at the Toronto International Film Festival.
That meant not taking an opportunity when offered by a reporter’s question to apologize to his late accuser’s family. “If you were confused why Ryan Lochte was called a child, was referred to as a kid, and was celebrated and rewarded with a “Dancing with the Stars” appearance, but you’re wondering why Tamir Rice was never referred to as a child but murdered within seconds for acting like a child, and you have a problem with that, this movie is for you as well”. But this is a forum for the film (and) for the other people that are sitting on this stage. As you can see in the clip below, Glasner had a one-on-one interview with Parker that began innocuously enough.
In the end, Parker said he didn’t want to “hijack” the press conference with his personal life.
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Nate Parker at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2016. The conference wasn’t associated with the festival, but followed the usual TIFF format: A moderator, Cori Murray of Essence magazine, chewed up time with empathetic questions, leaving just a few minutes for queries from the floor. Prior to its Toronto debut, she penned an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, in which she wrote: “As important and ground-breaking as this film is, I can not take these allegations lightly”. Her brother, identified only as Johnny, told The Hollywood Reporter that the rape case “was obviously that point” she changed. “I think we’re all craving acknowledgment that we’re real, that we exist, that we live among you, that we are your mothers, your brothers, your sisters, your lovers”. Yes, we are actively addressing and pushing back against oppression.
